IRLF 


Ebb    DfiS 


E  -JACKSON 


A    MEMORIAL 

tf 

ALICE  JACKSON 


IN    1906 


^4  Memorial  of 
Jackson 


By 
ROBERT  E.  SPEER 


ILLUSTRATED 


New    York       Chicago      Toronto 
Fleming  H.   Resell  Company 

London  and  Edinburgh 


Copyright,   1908,  by 
FLEMING  H.  REVELL  COMPANY 


New  York:  158  Fifth  Avenue 
Chicago:  80  Wabash  Avenue 
Toronto:  25  Richmond  Street,  W. 
London:  21  Paternoster  Square 
Edinburgh:  100  Princes  Street 


CONTENTS 

I.  CHILDHOOD      ....        7 

II.  AT  SMITH  COLLEGE         .        .       18 

III.  IN  THE  GIRLS'  CLUB  AT  GREEN- 

FIELD   26 

IV.  AT  CHRISTODORA  HOUSE          .       33 

V.  As  SECRETARY  OF  THE  SMITH 

COLLEGE  ASSOCIATION    FOR 
CHRISTIAN  WORK         .         .       40 

VI.  HER  SUMMERS  AND  HER  COR- 

RESPONDENCE        .  71 

VII.  IN    THE  WELFARE  WORK  AT 

LUDLOW       ....      77 

VIII.  IN  INDUSTRIAL  WORK  IN  NEW 

YORK  CITY  ...      94 

IX.  AT  DANA  HALL       ...       99 

X.  THE  END  WHICH  is  THE  BEGIN- 

NING    .....     107 

XI.  HER  OWN  INTERPRETATION  OF 

LIFE  AND  DEATH  .         .         .123 


5 

M101487 


Memorial  of 
Jackson 


1     /.-  j  :  :    , 

CHILDHOOD 

ALICE  JACKSON  was  born  at  Styal, 
Cheshire,  England,  on  December  19, 
1 876.  Her  father,  Stanway  Jackson, 
who  died  when  Alice  was  thirteen  years 
old,  was  an  ardent  Liberal  in  politics,  an 
effective  party  worker  and  a  powerful  plat- 
form speaker.  He  had  a  keen  interest,  which 
Alice  inherited,  in  all  efforts  for  social  prog- 
ress and  his  interest,  like  hers,  sought  ex- 
pression in  practical  helpfulness.  He  was 
a  member  of  the  Congregational  Church, 
superintendent  of  the  Sunday-school,  teacher 
of  a  Men's  Bible  Class,  and  leader  of  a  chil- 
dren's service.  On  her  mother's  side,  Alice 
was  descended  from  a  long  line  of  Congre- 
gational ministers  and  from  both  sides  of 
the  family  inherited  her  interest  in  foreign 
7 


8  Alice  Jackson 

missions.  In  the  days  when  the  doors  of 
the  great  English  universities  were  closed 
to  non-conformists,  some  of  the  candidates 
for  the  London  Missionary  Society  were 
.educated  ,in,  tjie  Jiome  of  her  grandfather, 
tae  /'ReVfcrjiiicl;  William  Alliott  of  Bedford 
.(Howard  (Cliapei),  and  such  men  as  Griffith 
ijfphHi  ;of  C;hinaj  JyicFa'rlane  of  New  Guinea 
ano!  Cousins  of  Madagascar  came  from  that 
library  class-room.  Alice  was  brought  up 
with  the  idea  that  work  in  the  Church  and 
for  the  community  was  a  matter  of  course. 

In  October,  1884,  the  family  came  to 
America  and  made  a  home  at  Englewood, 
N.  J.  Here  Alice  lived  until  she  went  away  , 
to  Smith  College,  in  the  fall  of  1894.  She 
had  as  a  child  the  same  rich  and  varied 
individuality  of  character  which  marked  her 
in  later  years.  Some  of  its  beauties  were 
the  natural  unfolding  of  her  early  qualities, 
and  some  the  triumphant  conquest  over 
what  might  have  been  narrowing  limitations. 
She  was,  like  many  children,  shy  and  diffi- 
dent, and  often  shrank  from  meeting  people. 
In  her  simple  unselfishness  she  would  think 
she  was  not  wanted  in  one  or  another 
company,  and  would  retire  accordingly  into 


A  Memorial  9 

the  background.  She  had  an  intense  reti- 
cence of  character  which  always  made  it 
hard  and  therefore  all  the  more  impressive 
for  her  to  speak  of  the  deepest  things.  She 
was  not  a  very  strong  child,  and  this  brought 
the  temptation  of  irritability,  and  one.  of  her 
first  battles  was  the  battle  which  she  vic- 
toriously fought  for  self-control.  When  the 
shadow  of  a  great  limitation  fell  in  later 
years  and  she  suffered  much,  even  her 
closest  friends  would  not  have  known  it 
from  any  outward  betrayal  and  she  had 
learned  this  lesson  of  complete  self-mastery 
as  a  child. 

Her  childhood,  as  all  her  later  life,  was 
filled  with  joyous  good  humour  and  playful- 
ness of  spirit.  She  had  a  great  desire  to 
hear  funny  things  to  make  her  laugh.  She 
would  say,  "  Tell  me  something  funny.  I 
like  to  laugh."  She  always  saw  the  amus- 
ing side,  and  no  one  who  heard  her  can 
forget  the  silvery  ripple  of  gladness  which 
lightened  all  her  talk.  She  had  always  a 
great  power  of  loving  others  and  as  a  child 
was  especially  devoted  to  her  brother,  whose 
death  occurred  just  a  year  before  her  own. 
She  would  sit  beside  him  while  he  read  to 


io  Alice  Jackson 

her  from  "  Pilgrim's  Progress,"  which  she 
loved,  but  would  always  demand  that  the 
passages  about  "  Mercy"  be  omitted.  "  Oh, 
leave  out  that  horrid  old  Merky,"  she  would 
interrupt.  She  was  very  fond  in  these  early 
years  of  big  words  and  of  pets  and  of  all 
living  things.  She  informed  an  older  sister 
one  day  that  she  knew  that  a  certain  person 
was  engaged  to  be  married  for  she  saw  her 
wear  a  diamond  ring,  and  "  so  my  super- 
stitions were  immediately  enlarged."  Once 
she  came  in  grieving,  "  I've  lost  my  white 
mice  in  the  piano.  I  wonder  if  I  can  find 
them,"  and  another  time  was  plunged  in 
grief  because  her  big  green  poison  cater- 
pillar had  gone  astray  in  the  library.  Her 
interest  in  animals  extended  to  the  dead 
ones,  and  she  wept  so  over  being  denied 
the  privilege  of  seeing  an  older  boy  dissect 
a  cat  that  her  mother  had  to  yield,  and  in 
the  interest  of  her  scientific  curiosity  allow 
her  to  witness  the  dissection.  She  rejoiced 
in  all  the  usual  play  of  childhood.  One  of 
her  childhood  playmates  writes  of  some 
recollections : 

"  I  remember  our  girl  confidences  in  the 
old  apple-tree  at  '  Pollards '  as  it  was  called 


A  Memorial  1 1 

then.  The  old  tree  was  back  behind  the 
barn  and  its  branches  hung  down  in  a  circle 
all  around,  so  when  we  were  inside  all  the 
world  seemed  shut  out,  and  we  each  had  our 
own  particular  limb  which  we'd  sit  on — and 
sway  up  and  down,  and  tell  what  we'd  do 
and  like  to  be  when  we  were  grown-up  peo- 
ple. I  remember  Alice,  even  then,  wanted 
to  be  a  missionary.  Perhaps  she  didn't  call 
it  by  that  name,  but  she  was  the  one  among 
us  who  kept  the  rest  inspired  by  her  high 
aspirations,  and  even  I  thought  I  should 
like  to  follow  Alice's  example.  Alice  never 
wished  for  anything  for  herself.  When  we 
all  told  our  greatest  desire  in  confidence, 
hers  was  always  something  which  would 
profit  some  one  else. 

"  I  recollect  the  time  when  we  were  playing 
'  Bachelor's  Kitchen  '  and  Alice's  forfeit  was 
to  kiss  father.  She  was  terribly  afraid  of 
father,  but  she  thought  it  was  her  forfeit  and 
she  would  have  to  do  it.  We  never  believed 
she  could,  but  while  we  were  all  laughing  and 
teasing  her,  up  she  marched  to  father,  who 
was  in  the  hammock,  and  kissed  him.  It 
just  showed  that  no  matter  how  frightened  she 
was,  when  she  thought  it  was  right  she  did  it. 


12  Alice  Jackson 

"  I  remember  the  fair  we  girls  had  on 
the  lawn  in  the  Maple  Street  house — for 
the  Helping  Hand  Society.  That  was  Alice's 
idea.  'We  girls  made  wash-rags,  I  remem- 
ber, and  sachets,  and  when  our  sachet-powder 
gave  out  we  used  some  good  smelling  cologne 
of  father's  to  make  the  sachets  smell  good. 
We'd  work  up  in  the  wild  cherry-trees  where 
the  Probsts'  big  house  is  built  now.  I  don't 
know  why  we  always  seemed  to  perch  in 
the  trees,  but  we  always  did.  The  old 
apple-tree  at  Pollards  and  the  wild  cherry- 
tree,  where  the  Probsts'  house  is  now,  are 
among  the  dearest  things  when  I  look  back 
nowadays." 

"  The  children  always  did  things  together," 
writes  one  of  her  sisters.  "  I  remember  the 
wedding  party  where  Alice  was  the  minister 
and  the  five  brides  and  grooms  proved  un- 
ruly, as  there  came  two  boys  who  insisted  on 

having  the  same  bride,  so  that  Sammy 

had  to  have  two.  And  I  remember  the 
lunatic  asylum  they  played  in  the  garret, 
and  when  we  objected  to  the  noise  they  of- 
fered to  change  to  a  menagerie.  And  then 
there  was  a  play  where  one  of  the  older  ones 
had  to  be  a  chorus  of  gnomes  singing  a  weird 


A  Memorial  13 

song.  It  was  the  doing  things  together  as 
children  that  helped  Alice  to  grasp  so 
quickly,  when  she  went  to  college,  the  full- 
ness of  the  class  spirit,  the  unity  of  team 
work.  When  Alice  was  twelve  an  older 
sister  was  married  and  the  children  wished 
to  earn  the  money  for  a  wedding  gift  so  as 
to  make  it  their  very  own.  They  gathered 
wild  blackberries  and  sold  them  to  mother. 
The  proceeds  were  to  buy  three  cups,  one 
from  each  of  them,  but  on  measuring  the 
contents  of  the  baskets  it  was  found  that 
Alice's  weighed  twice  that  of  any  one  else. 
So  four  cups  were  bought,  but  they  were 
given  '  From  us  all  three  together/  For 
nearly  twenty  years  no  one  has  drunk  from 
those  cups  without  silently  remembering  the 
spirit  of  the  gift." 

She  was  not  a  robust  child.  How  serious 
her  physical  limitations  were,  few  ever  dis- 
covered, except  when  she  was  suffering  from 
the  disease  which  ended  her  life.  She  ap- 
peared to  work  with  exhaustless  energy. 
During  her  college  course,  in  spite  of  her 
childhood's  delicate  health,  she  was  excep- 
tionally proficient  in  athletic  games.  That 
was  in  part  due  to  her  nervous  energy  and 


14  Alice  Jackson 

in  part  to  her  indomitable  purpose.  What 
she  made  up  her  mind  to  do  she  did  and 
nothing  could  change  any  purpose  she  had 
distinctly  formed.  She  would  readily  give 
up  any  wish  of  hers  for  the  sake  of  another, 
but  she  would  not  be  swerved  from  her  own 
conviction  one  hair's  breadth. 

Characteristic  of  this  unswerving  purpose 
was  her  determination,  as  a  child,  to  learn 
her  home  lessons  in  the  family  sitting-room 
where  all  the  older  members  gathered  after 
dinner  to  sew  and  chat.  She  could  not  be 
persuaded  to  go  into  a  quiet  room  apart. 
She  liked  company  and  she  liked  even  then 
to  prove  to  herself  that  she  could  so  concen- 
trate her  attention  as  not  to  hear  what  was 
going  on  around  her.  Perhaps  to  this  self- 
planned  discipline  of  mind  may  be  due  much 
of  her  later  power  to  accomplish  work  at  all 
times  and  in  all  surroundings.  Sensitiveness 
and  tender-heartedness  were  the  strongest 
characteristics  of  her  childhood,  and  it  was 
through  victory  over  their  possibilities  of 
hindrance  that  she  gained  her  rich  sympathy 
with  and  power  over  others.  Somehow, 
when  she  was  grown  up,  people  told  her  of 
troubles  and  temptations  that  they  never 


THE  CHILD 


A  Memorial  15 

confessed  elsewhere,  and  she  once  explained 
to  another  her  plan  to  be  of  help  to  them  : 
"  When  any  one  tells  you  of  a  matter  of 
which  she  has  hitherto  not  spoken  and  asks 
your  advice,  she  is  very  apt  afterwards  to  wish 
she  had  not  broken  silence  and  to  feel  em- 
barrassed the  next  time  she  meets  you.  So 
I  always  give  some  confidence  of  my  own  in 
return  and  then  we  meet  as  equals."  This 
little  speech  perhaps  more  than  anything  else 
shows  how  her  wish  to  serve  triumphed  over 
every  other  desire,  for  the  instinctive  rule  of 
her  personal  conduct  was  "  Every  man  shall 
bear  his  own  burden,"  and  though  she  was 
always  ready  to  bear  another's,  her  natural 
reticence  made  it  very  hard  for  her  to  share 
her  own. 

A  letter  to  an  older  cousin  written  shortly 
after  her  father's  death,  when  she  was 
thirteen,  shows  her  sensitiveness.  It  begins 
with  a  childish  description  of  the  excitement 
of  being  taken  by  friends  for  an  evening 
sleigh-ride  behind  four  horses  and  then  con- 
tinues, "  I  do  wish  papa  was  here  with  us, 
but  I  don't  feel  as  if  he  was  dead.  It  seems 
to  me  as  if  he  could  hear  every  word  we  say 
and  see  everything  we  do.  I  do  so  hate  to 


1 6  Alice  Jackson 

hear  anybody  say  anything  about  us  being 
fatherless."  It  was  this  same  friend  who 
took  her  sleighing  who  seemed  to  know  how 
best  to  comfort  her  after  her  father's  death. 
Alice  went  over  to  spend  the  day  with  her 
and  came  back  at  night  saying,  "  I  think 

Mrs.  K knows  what  children  want.  She 

didn't  talk  to  me.  She  just  left  me  alone 
and  gave  me  all  the  dogs  to  play  with." 

She  was  so  tender-hearted  over  offense  to 
others  that  each  evening  she  went  to  each  child 
in  the  family  and  asked  forgiveness,  until  at 
last  the  other  children  got  tired  and  told  her 
one  evening  to  stop,  that  she  was  forgiven 
for  a  month.  Thereupon,  in  her  conscien- 
tious way,  she  got  a  little  book  and  kept  a 
record  there  of  the  time  for  which  each  one 
had  promised  to  forgive  her.  Those  who 
are  discouraged  because  they  fear  that  be- 
cause of  their  sensitiveness  or  diffidence  of 
disposition  they  can  never  be  influential  with 
others,  need  not  surrender  to  these  things. 
They  may  be  all  the  stronger  for  them. 
Alice  Jackson  grew  up  through  these  very 
qualities  of  childhood  into  the  richest  and 
most  effective  service. 

Her  childhood  days  were  full  of  sunshine. 


A  Memorial  17 

The  children  always  played  their  games  to- 
gether, and  while  their  father  lived  they  had 
his  close  companionship  and  interest  in  all 
their  pursuits  and  pleasures.  He  was  their 
playmate,  too,  and  coming  home  from  busi- 
ness in  the  evening  he  would  take  his  "  Big 
Squirrel,"  as  he  always  called  her,  on  his 
shoulder,  and  would  romp  with  her.  That 
was  a  part  of  the  day  that  was  always  looked 
forward  to,  not  only  by  herself  and  her 
sisters,  but  also  by  all  their  playmates.  On 
Sunday  afternoons,  too,  there  would  be  walks 
in  the  woods,  long  English  walks — full  of 
the  interest  of  nature  and  of  the  beauty  of 
God's  world,  which  their  father  would  unfold 
to  them.  So  her  childhood  was  passed 
abounding  in  her  parents'  love  for  her — a 
love  which  permeated  her  life  through  all  its 
years. 


II 

AT  SMITH  COLLEGE 

AFTER  completing  her  preparation  at 
the  D wight  School  in  Englewood, 
Alice  entered  Smith  College  in  the 
fall  of  1894.     One  of  her  classmates  wrote  in 
The  Smith  College  Monthly  for  January,  1907, 
of  what  Alice  was  and  did  in  college : 

"  Since  we  first  came  together  as  a  class  in 
the  fall  of  '94,  Alice  Jackson's  influence  has 
been  a  most  consistently  helpful  and  inspir- 
ing one.  She  lived  her  class  spirit.  Her 
ready,  efficient,  untiring  service  spoke  her 
enthusiasm.  The  soundness  of  her  loyalty 
was  proven  by  her  high  standard  of  class 
spirit.  With  her  it  was  not  degraded  to  the 
standard  of  competition ;  her  work  for  her 
class  was  not  to  the  end  that  it  might  be  a 
successful  rival,  but  her  sturdy  effort  showed 
her  desire  that  we  might  attain  to  our  best ; 
that  we  might  arrive  at  our  highest  class- 
hood,  close  and  loyal  daughterhood  to  alma 
mater. 

18 


A  Memorial  19 

"  Unusually  versatile,  Alice  Jackson  en- 
tered into  almost  every  phase  of  our  college 
life,  and  whatever  she  touched  became  beau- 
tiful in  her  doing  of  it.  Whether  in  work  or 
in  play,  she  reached  out  always  for  the  under- 
lying ideal,  unconscious  of  herself  save  as  an 
instrument  of  service.  A  member  of  the 
basket-ball  team,  she  played  a  wonderful 
game,  swiftly,  quietly,  efficiently  and  fairly, 
always  in  the  helpful  place,  never  grasping 
an  opportunity  for  individual  glory  at  the 
expense  of  the  team  work.  She  grasped  the 
ethics  of  the  game  and  never  even  knew  there 
was  a  selfish  side.  At  the  close  of  our  of- 
ficial sophomore  game,  as  we,  crushed,  tragic 
children,  were  trying  to  grip  the  fact  bravely 
that  for  the  first  time  in  our  college  histoiy 
the  game  had  gone  officially  to  the  freshmen, 
it  was  our  Ajax  who  found  for  us  the  key  to 
the  situation, '  It's  fine  for  the  freshmen/ 

"So  in  the  college  honours  which  as  a 
matter  of  course  came  to  her  lot,  in  Alpha, 
Biological  Society,  Colloquium,  editor  of  the 
Monthly,  and  as  a  member  of  other  organi- 
zations, religious,  social  and  intellectual,  she 
regarded  her  election  not  as  a  cause  for  self- 
congratulation,  not  as  a  tribute  to  her  own 


2O  Alice  Jackson 

abilities,  but  simply  as  an  opportunity  for 
further  usefulness.  It  was  in  this  spirit  that 
she  entered  into  the  Shakespeare  prize  essay 
contest,  not  with  the  desire  of  winning  the 
prize  for  herself,  but  in  order  to  fill  out  the 
necessary  number  of  competitors.  When 
word  came  to  her  that  the  prize  had  been 
awarded  to  her  essay,  she  received  the  news 
with  a  burst  of  grief  and  disappointment :  '  I 

thought  C would  get  the  prize.  She 

worked  so  hard.' 

"  So  she  moved  and  worked  and  played 
among  us,  strong  in  her  simple  selflessness. 
Overwhelmed  with  work  for  other  people, 
she  was  never  too  tired  to  be  courteous,  never 
too  busy  to  be  sympathetic,  never  too  weary 
to  meet  new  demands,  never  too  engrossed 
to  seek  out  the  lonely  or  disheartened  or 
homesick  to  share  with  them  her  sweetness 
and  her  cheer." 

Letters  from  many  of  her  classmates  con- 
firm this  estimate  of  her  character :  "  If  ever 
a  girl  was  bent  on  making  life  count  to  the 
utmost  for  manifesting  the  life  and  the  love 
of  the  Lord  Christ  to  every  one  she  could 
reach,  that  was  Alice."  "  Did  any  one  ever 
live  so  near  God  as  she  did  ?  "  "  She  meant 


A  Memorial  21 

a  new  conception  of  life  to  me."  "  I  consider 
her  one  of  the  most  perfect  characters  I  ever 
knew."  So  some  of  them  wrote,  and  another 
testified  to  her  wonderful  freedom  in  college 
from  that  very  self-consciousness  which  was 
one  of  her  crosses  as  a  child : 

"  During  the  ten  years  which  I  have  known 
Alice,  I  have  come  more  and  more  to  realize 
not  only  the  wonderful  beauty  of  her  charac- 
ter, but  her  rare  combination  of  qualities. 
Her  kindliness,  ready  humour,  personal  charm 
and  generosity, — none,  perhaps,  the  traits 
most  apparent  at  first, — all  called  forth  a 
warm  response  from  all  who  met  her.  But 
there  was  besides  an  enthusiasm,  spontaneity 
and  a  vigour  of  character  which  dominated 
all  physical  accidents.  She  was  never  too 
absorbed  in  her  own  weariness  to  show  quick 
and  appreciative  sympathy  with  the  distress 
of  another,  while  her  unfailing  sweetness  was 
absolutely  sincere  and  without  sentimentality. 
Her  nature  was  essentially  modest, — often 
self-depreciating,  but  she  was  true  to  the  right 
as  she  knew  it  and  acted  with  a  fearlessness 
and  resolution  which  showed  perfect  freedom 
from  self-consciousness." 

It  would  have  been  a  joy  to  her  to  know 


22  Alice  Jackson 

that  the  consistency  of  her  Christian  life  in 
her  college  work  and  college  play  was  the 
means  of  helping  another  into  the  path  she 
tried  to  tread.  After  her  death  a  girl  wrote 
saying  that  when  she  was  in  college  she 
thought  she  would  test  the  theory  of  Chris- 
tian living  by  the  practice  of  a  professing 
Christian,  and  so  she  selected  Alice  Jackson 
as  the  one  to  watch.  And  Alice's  daily  life 
stood  the  test. 

The  Christian  aims,  which  had  always  been 
dominant  in  her  life,  came  to  mature  devel- 
opment in  college,  and  as  her  college  life 
closed,  the  thoughts  of  childhood  ripened  to 
large  missionary  purposes.  In  a  letter  writ- 
ten three  years  later,  she  described  the  growth 
of  her  Christian  experience  and  desire  for 
Christian  service : 

"  I  do  not  think  that  my  Christian  expe- 
rience has  differed  very  much  from  that  of 
most  children  of  God-fearing  parents.  My 
father  and  mother  loved  God  and  trusted  ab- 
solutely in  Him,  and  I  grew  up  to  love  Him, 
too,  and  to  see,  at  first  through  them  and 
then  for  myself,  how  He  is  indeed  the  loving, 
heavenly  Father,  who  is  always  ready  to  help 
and  strengthen  His  children,  to  bring  com- 


A  Memorial  23 

fort  in  sorrow,  strength  in  the  time  of  trial, 
to  give  power  to  overcome  all  temptations, 
and  to  sanctify  and  purify  and  beautify  all  life. 

"  During  my  senior  year  at  college, 
I  was  asked  to  serve  as  the  chairman  of 
our  Class  Prayer-Meeting  Committee,  and  I 
think  that  at  that  time,  in  planning  the  work 
and  in  prayer  for  a  deeper  spiritual  life  in 
the  college,  I  came  closer  to  God  than  ever 
before.  It  seems  strange  that  just  before 
graduating  from  college,  doubts  as  to 
whether  there  really  was  a  God  should  arise. 
It  seemed  for  the  moment  that  the  whole 
story  of  the  Christ  and  of  the  Father  might 
be  a  most  beautiful  legend,  and  one  which  I 
longed  to  believe,  but  had  no  right  to  do  so 
unless  I  really  knew  it  to  be  true.  I  deter- 
mined to  pray  to  God  just  the  same,  trusting 
that  if  there  really  was  a  God  He  would 
answer  my  prayer  and  give  me  a  clearer 
vision  of  Himself,  and  soon  the  doubts  and 
troubles  cleared  away. 

"  Since  that  time  Christ  has  seemed  nearer 
and  more  real  than  ever  before  and  I  know 
and  feel  that  He  is  indeed  the  truest  and 
dearest  of  friends,  who  is  always  near  and 
ready  to  help  and  to  sympathize. 


24  Alice  Jackson 

"  I  think  that  I  long  now  with  an  ever- 
deepening  desire  to  do  God's  will  and  to  live 
as  Christ  did,  a  life  of  loving,  unselfish 
service. 

"  Ever  since  I  was  a  small  child  I  have  al- 
ways longed  to  go  and  live  among  the  poor 
and  unhappy.  At  first  not  from  any  idea  of 
doing  missionary  work,  but  simply  because 
my  own  life  had  had  so  much  happiness  in  it 
that  I  could  not  bear  to  think  of  any  one 
else  being  unhappy.  I  wanted  to  share  my 
joy  with  them. 

"  I  always  had  a  great  admiration  for  mis- 
sionaries, but  their  lives  seemed  to  me  to  be 
so  set  apart,  so  far  above  my  life  or  anything 
that  I  could  ever  become,  that  I  never 
thought  that  I  myself  might  one  day  be  a 
missionary.  It  was  not  until  the  summer  of 
1898,  when  I  was  asked  if  I  was  not  willing 
to  go  abroad  as  a  missionary,  that  the  possi- 
bility of  really  being  able  to  do  so  came  to 
me  with  any  force.  At  Northfield,  that  same 
summer,  I  was  taught  that  God  can  use  our 
lives,  and  working  through  us,  can  teach  us 
how  to  bring  others  into  His  kingdom. 
Since  that  time  I  have  longed  to  be  a  mis- 
sionary that  I  may  not  only  share  the  joy 


A  Memorial  25 

that  has  come  into  my  life  with  others,  but 
that  I  may  tell  them  of  the  love  of  God,  be- 
lieving that  through  Him,  they  may  be 
brought  into  lives  of  happiness  and  useful- 
ness." 

Only  her  nearest  friends  realized  the  re- 
ligious questionings  through  which  Alice  was 
passing  in  college.  But  there  was  nothing 
to  fear  from  them.  She  had  a  will  of  perfect 
obedience  and  no  doubts  would  long  darken 
her  sky.  One  who  knew  her  well  writes  : 

"  I  never  knew  a  college  girl  more  con- 
scientiously doubtful  than  Alice,  and  I've 
never  seen  one  come  out  into  the  sunshine 
more  fully.  From  doubt  and  darkness  came 
not  only  absolute  trust  and  gladness,  but  in 
many  ways  she  was  like  a  mystic  filled  with 
the  presence  of  Christ — truly  nearer  than  her 
own  life.  I  marvelled  at  her  because  she 
was  far  from  well — spent  nights  awake  and 
in  pain — but  in  it  all  came  more  and  more 
into  absorption  in  Christ  and  a  childlike 
confidence  that  made  her  not  only  winsome 
for  His  cause  but  a  distinct  power." 

She  came  out  of  college  ready  for  the 
larger  service  by  reason  of  the  doubts 
which  she  had  lived  through. 


Ill 

IN  THE  GIRLS'  CLUB  AT 
GREENFIELD 

BUT  before  she  offered  herself  for  mis- 
sionary service,  she  turned  to  the 
opportunities  and  responsibilities  near 
at  hand  which  called  to  her,  and  which 
offered  the  best  preparation  for  the  work  to 
which  she  looked  forward.  And  as  it  turned 
out,  she  never  went  abroad  and  her  life-work 
was  as  a  missionary  of  truest  character  at 
home.  She  took  up  work  in  the  New 
York  School  of  Pedagogy,  teaching  at  the 
same  time,  first  in  Brooklyn  and  then  in  Miss 
Audubon's  school  in  New  York,  and  serving 
as  a  volunteer  worker  in  the  Christodora 
House.  The  following  two  years,  1899- 
1901,  she  was  secretary  of  the  Girls'  Club  at 
Greenfield,  Mass.  This  club  had  been  formed 
in  1895  in  the  Second  Congregational 
Church,  and  to  avoid  all  danger  of  encroach- 
ing upon  other  denominations,  only  members 
of  this  church  or  of  no  church  were  eligible. 
26 


A  Memorial  27 

It  outgrew  such  limitations,  however,  and  in 
1 896  was  made  general.  The  club  was  thor- 
oughly democratic  and  practical, — well-to-do 
and  poor  meeting  on  a  basis  of  fellowship  and 
equality, — and  the  work  included  courses  in 
literature,  German,  sewing,  cooking,  first  aid 
to  the  injured,  local  history  and  physical 
culture.  Here  the  friendless  found  in  Alice 
the  very  friend  they  needed  to  reveal  to 
them  a  greater  Friend.  "  She  remembered 
folks  that  no  one  else  took  any  notice  of,"  said 
one  girl.  "  I  always  know  Miss  Jackson  will 
remember  me  whether  or  not  I  get  anything 
else  for  Christmas."  Here  as  always,  she 
was  not  content  with  doing  a  few  duties,  or 
all  her  duties  in  one  sphere.  She  reached 
out  to  all  the  needy  lives  she  could  touch. 
The  Congregational  pastor  wrote  of  her : 
"  She  is  the  sanest  worker  of  her  age  that  I 
have  ever  seen.  She  is  just  the  kind  of 
worker  we  cannot  spare  here,  but  her  heart 
is  set  on  the  foreign  field."  This  judgment 
was  expressed  to  the  Presbyterian  Board  of 
Foreign  Missions,  to  which,  in  February, 
1901,  she  offered  herself  for  work  in  China. 
"  About  China,"  she  wrote,  "  I  do  long  to 
go  there  more  deeply  than  to  any  other 


28  Alice  Jackson 

place,  and  especially  in  the  interior  or  to 
northern  China.  Mother  wrote  me  the 
other  day  that  I  could  not  go  to  China 
next  year.  I  think  that  the  only  reason  is 
the  danger,  and  I  feel  that  when  I  can  talk 
to  her  myself  about  it,  she  may  be  willing  to 
let  me  go  in  the  autumn.  At  the  same 
time,  though  my  greatest  desire  is  centred 
in  China,  I  want  to  go  wherever  my  life  is 
going  to  be  the  most  useful,  and  I  don't 
want  to  let  any  personal  desires  come  in. 
So  if  it  is  really  not  best  for  me  to  go  there, 
it  will  be  a  great  joy  to  go  to  some  other 
country.  I  really  do  want  to  go  or  to  stay, 
whichever  is  best,  only  I  cannot  help  hoping 
that  I  may  be  fitted  for  a  life  abroad.  As  I 
have  written  you,  I  long  to  go  as  soon  as 
possible  (if  I  shall  prove  to  be  fitted  for  such 
work),  but  I  do  want  to  have  the  best  prepa- 
ration and  so  be  really  useful." 

A  few  weeks  later  she  wrote  : 

"  I  have  given  northern  or  the  interior 
of  China  as  the  field  to  which  I  most  desire 
to  go.  I  do  not  really  know  whether  it  is 
God's  will  for  me  to  go  there  'or  only  my 
intense  desire.  If  it  is  His  will,  I  am  very 
sure  that  all  obstacles  will  be  removed.  And 


A  Memorial  29 

He  will  make  His  will  very  clear,  I  believe. 
Personally,  I  have  no  fear  of  going  into 
China,  and  feel  that  if  persecutions  and 
danger  should  come,  His  strength  to  in- 
spire courage  would  come  in  a  far  greater 
measure,  and  that  He  would  bring  comfort 
and  even  joy  to  the  friends  at  home.  So 
that  if  it  is  His  will  for  me  to  go,  and  if  I 
am  fitted  to  go,  I  am  willing  to  go  to  China. 
If  not,  as  I  said  before,  to  any  land  or  any 
people,  to  Japan,  or  any  other  place.  All 
the  work,  I  know,  is  His:  the  work  abroad 
and  the  work  at  home.  The  Board  can 
judge,  of  course,  from  my  papers,  etc.,  far 
better  than  I  can,  just  where  I  am  fitted  to 
go,  or  if  I  am  fitted  to  go  at  all.  I  am  afraid 
that  the  way  in  which  I  cling  to  China  may 
make  it  seem  as  though  I  would  not  go 
with  equal  gladness  to  other  lands,  but  if  it 
is  God's  will  for  me  to  do  so,  I  know  that  I 
shall  love  the  people  with  whom  I  live  with 
the  same  and  a  deeper  love  (as  I  grow  to 
know  them)  as  I  do  China  and  her  people 
now." 

In  a  more  formal  letter  she  gave  the  story 
of  her  spiritual  life  and  her  reasons  for  wish- 
ing to  go  as  a  missionary,  in  which  she  used 


30  Alice  Jackson 

the  words  already  quoted  about  her  child- 
hood desire,  adding: 

"  In  asking  to  be  sent  to  a  foreign  country 
I  realize  that  I  am  seeking  for  myself  the 
happiest  and  most  beautiful  life,  and  a  life 
which  I  am  unworthy  to  live,  except  through 
the  help  and  grace  of  God,  which  can  work 
through  even  the  humblest  life  and  make  it  of 
use  to  Himself.  It  is  because  of  this  hope 
that  He  will  use  me  for  Himself,  that  I  dare 
to  ask  to  go." 

She  did  not  offer  herself  for  this  service 
without  counting  its  cost, — not  to  herself, 
which  was  nothing  to  her,  for  the  joy  that 
was  set  before  her, — but  to  her  mother  and 
family.  The  Board  asked  her  to  consider 
the  need  for  a  teacher  in  the  Joshi  Gakuin, 
a  large  school  for  girls  in  Tokyo,  Japan,  and 
she  replied : 

"  All  week  I  have  been  thinking  and  pray- 
ing about  this  question,  and  now  I  still  feel 
that  if  the  Board  will  send  me  there,  I  be- 
long to  China.  I  don't  think  that  this  is 
only  my  own  personal  desire  to  go  there. 

"  I  know  that  in  this  decision  I  stand 
alone,  and  that  it  will  be  a  great  grief  and 
disappointment  to  all  my  friends.  I  realize 


A  Memorial  31 

that  I  am  asking  them  to  make  all  the  sacri- 
fice and  that  I  have  no  sacrifice  to  make,  no 
grief,  except  that  of  giving  them  pain.  I 
realize,  too,  that  in  asking  you  to  send  me 
to  the  interior,  I  have  asked  you  to  send  me 
to  the  most  dangerous  part.  But  I  knew 
that  a  year  ago,  when  I  first  made  the  re- 
quest. I  think  I  am  right  in  doing  this,  and 
feel  that  only  a  knowledge  of  disqualification 
should  keep  me  from  doing  so." 

"  Her  family's  opposition  to  her  plan  of 
going  to  China,"  writes  one  of  her  sisters, 
"was  largely  based  on  the  fact  that  Alice 
had  learned  but  slowly  the  practical  rules  for 
self-protection.  They  felt  that  she  was  doing 
and  would  do  a  splendid  work  in  America, 
and  that  the  shelter  and  care  of  her  home 
were  there  near  at  hand  if  she  should  get 
overtired  or  break  down  and  need  them. 
They  felt  sure  that  in  case  of  Boxer  uprising 
or  other  calamity  she  would  neglect  even  the 
obvious  precautions  for  her  own  in  her  zeal 
for  others'  safety,  and  this  burden  of  anxiety 
was  one  which  they  did  not  feel  it  right  or 
necessary  that  her  mother  should  assume." 

As  she  grew  more  mature  she  realized 
more  the  sacrifice  it  would  mean  to  her 


32  Alice  Jackson 

mother  if  she  should  go  to  China.  Her 
mother's  enfolding  love  was  her  stay  in  deep 
personal  sorrow  and  her  own  love  given  in 
return  the  dominating  human  power  in  her 
life. 

The  Board's  medical  adviser  declined  to 
approve  Alice's  appointment,  and  informed 
the  Board,  as  he  told  her,  that  probably  she 
could  never  go  to  the  mission  field.  He  dis- 
covered that  she  was  suffering  from  an  ailment 
(diabetes)  from  which  she  had  practically  no 
hope  of  recovery.  She  refused  to  be  daunted, 
however,  and  though  she  left  the  Girls'  Club 
at  Greenfield,  went  steadfastly  on  in  her 
work  at  home,  at  the  same  time  that  she 
sought  to  carry  out  faithfully  all  the  advice 
of  the  physician  whom,  as  in  the  case  of  all 
whom  she  met,  she  made  her  fast  friend. 
Nothing  could  disturb  her  serene  and  joyful 
confidence  that  if  it  was  God's  will  she  would 
get  to  China. 


IV 

AT  CHRISTODORA  HOUSE 

f    •    ^\HE  summer  of  1901  she  spent  at 
the    Christodora    House    in    New 


i 


York  City,  a  Christian  settlement 
on  Avenue  B  near  Tenth  Street.  She  had 
worked  there  before,  and  always  went  back 
when  she  could.  She  founded  the  Mothers' 
Club,  beginning  by  asking  the  mothers  of 
some  of  the  children  in  the  clubs  to  come 
and  drink  coffee  and  sing  German  songs 
once  a  week  at  the  House.  From  its  begin- 
ning of  six  German  women,  who  met  to  talk 
over  their  children  and  to  sew,  the  club  is 
now  going  on  with  a  membership  of  thirty. 
One  of  the  women  in  relating  the  little  his- 
tory of  the  club  in  detail  said,  "  Miss  Jack- 
son was  like  a  stone  that  you  put  in  a 
puddle  of  water,  for  every  little  while  I  keep 
finding  a  new  ring."  She  spoke  of  work 
that  had  come  to  her  when  she  needed  em- 
ployment through  the  influence  of  the  club, 
and  finally  told  of  a  lady  who  had  sent 
33 


34  Alice  Jackson 

her  daughter  to  the  Northfield  Conference 
one  year,  and  on  finding  that  this  lady  was  a 
friend  of  Alice  Jackson  she  exclaimed  tri- 
umphantly, "  There's  the  latest  and  biggest 
ring."  She  had  a  club  for  boys,  also,  which 
bore  the  name  of  "  The  Young  Patriots' 
Club."  One  of  Alice's  strongest  character- 
istics was  her  sense  of  fun  and  ready  appre- 
ciation of  humorous  situations.  She  always 
enjoyed  the  fact  that  the  secretary  of  her 
"  Young  Patriots'  Club  "  solemnly  announced 
to  an  assembled  audience  at  Cooper  Union 
that  the  boys  had  spent  the  year  in  the 
study  of  "  history,  manners,  and  other  relics." 
She  had  unique  success  in  this,  as  in  all  her 
work,  and  she  attributed  a  good  deal  of  it  to 
her  training  under  Miss  Washburn  of  Green- 
field, whose  ready  humour  and  tact  found 
the  way  out  of  many  apparent  difficulties. 
She  wrote  a  little  song  for  the  children  at 
Christodora  House,  which  became  a  great 
favourite : 

A  PRAYER 

Father,  hear  Thy  little  children 

As  to  Thee  we  pray, 
Asking  for  Thy  loving  blessing 

Qn  this  day. 


A  Memorial  35 

Father,  make  us  pure  and  holy ; 

Father,  make  us  good. 
Show  us  how  to  love  each  other 
As  we  should. 

Through  the  day,  O  loving  Saviour, 

May  we  grow  like  Thee, 
In  the  beauty  all  about  us 

Thy  reflection  see. 

When  at  length  the  evening  cometh 

And  we  fall  asleep, 
In  Thy  arms  of  love,  Thy  children 

Safely  keep. 

Father,  hear  Thy  little  children 

While  to  Thee  we  pray, 
Asking  for  Thy  loving  guidance 

All  this  day. 

The  words  of  this  song  lingered  in  many 
minds.  The  head  worker  of  the  Christodora 
House  told  recently  of  a  young  woman  who 
had  not  been  a  regular  attendant  at  the  clubs 
who  surprised  her  by  quoting  some  verses 
that  she  had  learned  years  before  at  Chil- 
dren's Hour.  Miss  MacColl  asked  her  if  she 
remembered  anything  else  she  had  learned 
at  that  time.  She  answered :  "  Yes,  and  I 
lost  a  position  through  it."  Then  she  ex- 
plained :  "  It  is  the  verse 


36  Alice  Jackson 

"  'Father,  make  us  pure  and  holy; 

Father,  make  us  good. 
Show  us  how  to  love  each  other 
As  we  should.' 

I  have  said  it  every  day  since  I  went  to  Chil- 
dren's Hour  and  I  found  in  one  position  that 
I  could  not  stay  and  keep  pure  and  holy  and 
I  had  to  give  it  up  or  stop  saying  the  verse, 
so  I  gave  it  up."  The  little  children  still 
sing  the  song  every  Sunday  afternoon.  One 
of  the  little  children's  societies  in  Christodora 
now  is  the  "  Alice  Jackson  Circle "  of  de- 
formed children,  whom  one  of  those  whom 
Alice  inspired  has  gathered  in  her  name 
and  spirit.  "  The  Alice  Jackson  Circle," 
writes  Miss  MacColl,  the  head  worker, "  has 
a  membership  of  fifteen  small  girls  and  boys. 
Each  child  is  a  cripple.  Not  being  normal 
children  it  requires  much  patience  and  firm- 
ness to  keep  them  happy  and  at  the  same 
time  teach  them  self-control.  Marion  Reich 
is  wonderfully  patient  and  sunny  hearted 
with  the  children  and  her  faithfulness  to 
their  club  afternoon  is  a  lesson  to  many  who 
are  not  carrying  the  responsibilities  which 
are  on  her  shoulders.  Stormy  days,  heavy 
snow,  cold-driving  rain  have  never  hindered 


A  Memorial  37 

her.  Often  she  has  looked  very  tired  and 
the  children  have  been  boisterous  and  I  have 
questioned  in  my  heart,  '  Will  she  keep  it 
up  ? '  Once  I  asked  her  how  she  kept  up 
her  cheer  and  she  said,  '  Oh,  I  am  not  cheer- 
ful compared  to  Miss  Jackson.  She  was 
wonderful !  Miss  MacColl,  do  you  remember 
how  patient  she  was  ?  If  I  thought  I  could 
ever  be  like  her !  But  I  never,  never  can.' 
She  has  often  told  the  children  that  they 
could  never  hope  for  anything  more  than  to 
be  as  good  as  Miss  Jackson.  If  they  were 
like  her  they  would  never  be  selfish  and  they 
would  make  everybody  who  knew  them  very, 
very  happy. 

"  Another  girl  questioned,  *  Did  she  never 
get  tired  of  doing  things  for  others?  She 
never  seemed  to  have  anything  to  do  for 
herself.  Thinking  of  her  has  made  me  do 
things  for  others  lots  of  times, — but  not  all 
the  time  like  Miss  Jackson.' 

"  Still  another  asked,  '  Did  you  ever  see 
Miss  Jackson  look  cross?  It  makes  me 
smile  just  to  think  how  bright  her  face  al- 
ways was.' 

"  One  woman  said, '  Miss  Jackson  never 
did  anything  I  would  not  have  been  glad  to 


38  Alice  Jackson 

do  for  others  if  I  had  only  thought  of  it.1 
Then  quickly,  *  Oh,  I  suppose  the  thinking 
of  it  is  the  whole  thing ! ' 

"  So  mothers  and  babies  went  away  to 
spend  long  hot  days  by  the  sea  or  in  the 
country  because  Miss  Jackson  thought  of  it. 
Fruit  was  added  to  the  dry  luncheon  of  a 
hard-working  factory  girl  because  Miss  Jack- 
son thought  of  it.  A  footstool,  just  the 
right  height,  was  slipped  under  a  pair  of  feet 
which  dangled  wearily  all  day  long  because 
the  factory  working  chair  was  too  high. 
Miss  Jackson  saw  the  need  and  met  it. 

"  Hot,  sticky  little  fingers  were  taught  to 
take  even  stitches  in  aprons  to  surprise 
mother.  They  were  taught  to  toil  patiently 
over  their  thin  cambric  squares  to  make  '  a 
nice  fine  handkerchief  for  big  sister.'  Older 
hands  were  taught  how  to  cut  and  fashion 
dainty  underwear  because  '  Every  girl  wants 
pretty  underclothing  no  matter  what  outside 
clothes  she  wears.'  This  was  new  and  won- 
derful news  and  an  added  bit  of  grace  was 
put  to  the  knowledge  when  it  was  suggested 
that  each  girl  give  a  hand-made  undergar- 
ment to  her  best  girl  friend. 

"  The  giving  of  gifts  made  by  the  donor 


A  Memorial  39 

became  the  most  popular  thing  at  Christodora 
House  that  winter. 

"  One  girl  began  an  elaborate  bit  of  white 
wool  crocheting  on  which  her  heart  was  set. 
But  untrained  fingers  found  it  impossible, 
white  wool  became  dark,  snarls  and  ravelled 
loops  appeared  everywhere.  One  night  the 
girl  suddenly  seemed  to  realize  that  she  was 
making  a  failure  of  her  work  and  held  it  up 
to  look  at  it  with  a  wail,  '  O,  tell  me,  Miss 
Jackson.  Say  is  it  all  wrong  ?  Is  the  wool 
all  wasted  ?  Can  I  never  do  it  ?  '  But  the 
work  had  been  swept  out  of  her  hands  and  a 
cheery  voice  said,  « It  will  be  all  right.  You 
are  tired  to-night.  Let  us  put  it  away  and 
begin  all  fresh  and  rested  to-morrow.'  At 
half-past  twelve  that  night  I  found  Alice 
Jackson  labouring  over  that  distorted  piece 
of  work,  and  after  that  Alice  Jackson  ripped 
out  each  night  what  the  girl  did  in  the  even- 
ing and  did  it  over  again  that '  she  might  not 
feel  discouraged  and  give  it  up,  for  she  is  a 
girl  who  needs  encouragement  just  now.' 
The  girl  never  knew  that  her  work  was  done 
over  each  night  and  she  marvelled  at  her 
own  capacity.  Her  work  for  the  last  two 
nights  was  so  good  it  did  not  need  to  come 
out !  Can  you  imagine  Miss  Jackson's  joy  ?" 


AS  SECRETARY  OF  THE  SMITH 

COLLEGE  ASSOCIATION  FOR 

CHRISTIAN  WORK 

IN  the  fall  of  1902  Alice  went  back  to 
Northampton  to  become  secretary  of 
the  Smith  College  Association  for 
Christian  Work,  and  remained  till  the  sum- 
mer of  1904.  No  years  could  be  filled  more 
full  of  rich  and  loving  service  than  Alice 
Jackson  filled  these  two  years  at  Smith. 
What  she  had  regarded  as  her  limitations  in 
childhood, — her  sensitiveness  and  her  re- 
serve,— had  developed  into  the  very  sources 
of  her  power.  She  was  able  to  win  every 
one.  There  was  no  one  whom  she  was  not 
seeking  to  help,  and  no  work  which  she  was 
not  eager  to  do.  "  What  always  seemed  to 
me  especially  remarkable  was  that  she  never 
seemed  isolated,  in  the  least  out  of  sympathy 
with  all  sorts  of  people,"  wrote  one  of  the 
teachers  in  Smith.  "  She  was  always  a  won- 
derfully good  companion."  But  the  best 
40 


A  Memorial  41 

way  to  set  forth  what  she  did  as  secretary  of 
the  College  Association,  and  the  spirit  in 
which  she  did  it,  will  be  to  quote  the  state- 
ment contributed  to  The  Smith  College 
Monthly  by  Miss  Van  Kleeck,  who  was 
president  of  the  association  in  1902-04. 
Miss  Van  Kleeck  wrote  in  the  thought  of 
Alice's  first  Christmas  Day  in  the  Land  Ever- 
lasting : 

" '  To  me  to  live  is  Christ,  and  to  die  is 
gain.' 

"  Alice  Jackson  loved  Christmas  Day.  Its 
spirit  is  the  spirit  of  her  life.  For  on  that 
day  the  world  is  radiant  with  happiness,  and 
so  was  she,  through  all  her  days.  And  the 
radiance  is  the  shining  of  the  Christ-child's 
face,  whose  light  was  her  light, — in  whom 
she  looked  upon  the  face  of  her  Master.  In 
the  spirit  of  a  little  child,  she  worshipped. 

"  Well  she  knew  the  tragedy  of  the  doubts 
which  darken  our  age,  and  the  complexity  of 
action  and  thought  in  which  we  lose  our 
way.  Fighting  the  battle  which  is  the  com- 
mon lot  to-day,  the  truth  shone  out  before 
her  eyes  that  not  the  mind  alone  nor  the 
heart  alone  can  find  the  light,  but  in  the  life 
of  discipleship  is  Christ  made  real  to  mind 


42  Alice  Jackson 

and  heart.  The  hope  of  the  Gospel  rests  not 
in  argument,  nor  scattered  deeds,  but  in  the 
lives  of  those 

"  '  Who,   to   the  world,  deep  joy  and  gladness 

bring, 

Fulfilling  by  their  daily  lives  the  message 
Which  on  the  Christmas  morn  the  angels  sing.' 

The  words  are  hers  ;  nor  could  her  own  life's 
ideal  be  more  truly  expressed. 

"  So  it  is  that  we  see  in  her,  not  the  fitful 
working  of  a  purpose  which,  however  strong, 
yet  by  reason  of  many  other  conflicting  pur- 
poses fails  to-morrow  when  to-day's  deed  of 
kindness  is  done.  But  we  see  in  her  the 
radiance  of  a  life  which  cannot  be  diverted 
from  its  path,  because  it  is  lived  close  to 
God. 

"  It  is  the  beauty  of  her  life  that  through 
her  our  thoughts  are  lifted  to  the  Master 
whom  she  served.  To  this  power,  many  of 
those  whose  lives  were  strengthened  by  her 
two  years'  service  in  college  bear  witness : 

"  '  In  every  picture  of  her  which  comes  be- 
fore my  mind  she  is  bringing  happiness  to 
some  one.  With  burning  intensity  to  crowd 
as  much  as  possible  into  every  day,  uncertain 


A  Memorial  43 

how  many  might  be  granted  her,  she  gave  to 
us  all  a  vision  of  the  radiance  of  service.' 

"  '  Her  Christlike  simplicity,  purity  and 
selflessness  have  been  always  my  inspira- 
tion.' 

" '  All  who  knew  her  have  a  sense  of  joy 
from  contact  with  a  life  that  was  lived  close 
to  God.' 

"  '  She  was  not  constantly  trying  to  forget 
self, — she  never  remembered  self.' 

"  *  She  was  always  ready  to  enter  into  our 
good  times,  and  to  help  us.' 

"  *  To  no  one  did  the  beautiful  side  of  life 
appeal  more  strongly.  Yet  she  met  the  sor- 
did things  in  the  cities,  where  she  worked, 
with  patient  sympathy  and  tender  love.' 

" '  She  always  saw  the  good  so  strongly 
that  there  was  no  place  for  the  bad.' 

"  *  As  Christmas  draws  near,  many  a  home 
will  miss  her  cheery  letter.  She  remembered 
all  her  friends.' 

" '  At  first  I  could  not  see  how  her  life 
could  be  spared.  And  then  I  knew  that 
those  who  loved  her  would  find  in  her 
memory  a  baptism  into  Christlike  service.' 

"  '  She  knew  all  kinds  of  girls,  understood 
all  kinds,  loved  all  kinds.  Her  energy,  her 


44  Alice  Jackson 

practicality,  her  unresting  urging  on  of  good, 
the  fire  of  her  faith,  made  her  verily  an 
instrument  in  the  hands  of  God.' 

" '  She  has  left  no  shadow,  but  a  radiance 
in  the  minds  and  hearts  of  those  whom  she 
helped  to  a  more  joyous  and  clear  under- 
standing of  the  meaning  of  life.  She  herself 
had  gained  the  spirit  of  the  Christ-life  and 
knew  how  to  guide  others  to  share  it  with 
her.' 

"  The  great  love  which  she  gave  to  those 
whose  lives  touched  hers, — the  human  love 
which  reveals  the  divine, — was  the  power  in 
all  her  work.  Out  of  that  love  came  the 
brave  good  cheer  with  which  she  met  the 
failure  of  her  purpose  to  go  to  a  foreign  field, 
— a  service  which  had  seemed  to  her  the  most 
perfect  fulfillment  of  discipleship.  Yet,  al- 
though that  purpose  failed  of  accomplishment, 
it  consecrated  all  the  work  which  took  its 
place. 

"  All  this  richness  of  life  she  brought  to 
her  two  years'  secretaryship  in  the  Christian 
Association.  Tolerant  as  she  was  steadfast, 
sympathetic  as  she  was  zealous,  untiring  as 
she  was  patient,  she  worked  and  prayed  un- 
ceasingly that  in  the  college  which  she  loved 


A  Memorial  45 

might  come  a  vision  of  Christ,  in  whose 
service  she  had  taken  up  the  task.  She  re- 
garded the  work  as  a  great  privilege.  It  con- 
cerned not  alone  the  girls  in  college,  but  the 
faculty,  the  alumnae,  the  trustees  and  all 
other  friends.  To  them  she  felt  herself 
responsible  as  for  a  trust,  fulfilled  by  bring- 
ing them  all  into  touch  with  the  work,  carry- 
ing from  them  to  us  the  inspiration  of  their 
interest. 

"  She  was  ever  such  a  messenger,  receiving 
strength  from  some  one  who  had  it  for  some 
one  who  needed  it,  bringing  to  those  who 
were  sad  the  happiness  of  those  who  were 
joyous. 

"  Surely  she  would  be  willing  to  have  us 
remember  certain  words  of  hers :  <  So  often 
I  feel  how  utterly  unworthy  I  am  of  the  po- 
sition that  you  have  asked  me  to  try  to  fill. 
You  don't  know  how  often  I  say,  "  I  am  but 
as  a  child,  and  I  know  not  how  to  come  in 
nor  go  out,"  but  I  am  trying  to  leave  it  all 
with  God  and  to  trust  Him  to  fit  me  for  it. 
I  have  been  thinking  very  much  of  Jesus 
Christ  these  days,  of  His  tenderness  and 
love  and  simplicity  and  humility.  And  the 
thought  that  some  day  we  shall  be  like  Him 


46  Alice  Jackson 

is  the  most  wonderful  of  all  thoughts  to  me, 
and  one  that  I  don't  believe  I  can  ever  real- 
ize, but  which  I  love.' 

"  It  is  the  most  perfect  season  of  the  year 
for  her  to  pass  into  a  fuller  life,  a  closer  walk 
with  God.  With  this  season  we  shall  always 
associate  her, — Christmas,  the  day  of  happi- 
ness, the  birthday  of  Christ." 

Professor  Irving  Wood,  of  the  Department 
of  Biblical  Literature,  wrote  for  the  same 
issue  of  the  Monthly,  an  estimate  of  Alice's 
influence  and  work  as  secretary,  from  the 
point  of  view  of  one  of  her  teachers  : 

"  If  one  speaks  of  the  memory  of  Alice 
Jackson  from  the  point  of  view  of  the  mem- 
bers of  the  faculty  who  knew  her  -best,  it 
will  be  only  a  repetition  in  another  form  of 
what  her  student  friends  might  say ;  for  she 
did  not  have  different  sides  of  her  nature  for 
different  classes  of  people.  She  was  a  very 
exceptional  woman.  There  was,  first,  her 
gloriously  strong  personality,  with  which  she 
was  dowered  by  nature.  Then  there  was 
her  tremendous  activity.  It  overflowed  into 
all  possible  fields.  While  she  was  busy  with 
college  work,  she  was  also  laying  plans  for 
mission  study  in  the  Christian  Endeavour 


A  Memorial  47 

Societies  of  the  churches  of  Northampton 
and  vicinity.  That  is  only  an  example  of 
her  energy  for  work.  But  all  this  was  not 
done  merely  for  the  sake  of  doing  things. 
She  cared  primarily  about  people.  Very  few 
persons  of  her  age  had  and  kept  more  at- 
tachments to  people  of  all  sorts  than  she. 
Even  the  children  of  the  families  of  her  ac- 
quaintance had  a  remembrance  at  Christmas. 
Whether  working  girls  or  college  graduates, 
she  seemed  never  to  forget  any  one  with 
whom  she  came  in  contact.  There  was 
nothing  she  would  not  do  to  help  any  one. 
She  very  often  came  to  her  friends  on  the 
faculty  with  problems,  but  they  were  seldom 
her  own.  They  were  the  problems  of  some 
one  else,  whom  she  wanted  to  help.  But  one 
felt  in  it  all  that  her  entire  activity  was  con- 
trolled by  one  motive,  the  will  to  do  the  will 
of  God.  Her  religion  was  very  unassuming 
and  anything  but  self-confident.  To  those 
who  were  officially  connected  with  her  sec- 
retaryship in  the  association  she  often  spoke 
modestly  of  the  imperfections  of  her  work, 
as  she  saw  it ;  but  she  never  spoke  despond- 
ently. It  was  a  happy  religion, — just  a 
happy,  wholesome,  human  life,  filled  with  all 


48  Alice  Jackson 

the  fun  and  work  that  it  could  hold,  and  all 
of  it  alike  religious.  She  had  her  sorrows 
and  her  disappointments,  and  they  were  very 
keen,  but  she  never  talked  of  them.  She 
laid  aside  the  things  she  would  gladly  have 
done  but  could  not,  and  turned  with  greater 
energy  to  what  she  could  do,  and  did  it  joy- 
ously for  Christ's  sake.  She  has  shown  us 
how  the  love  of  Christ  can  be  translated  into 
a  present  day  human  life;  and  we  are  the 
richer  for  her  memory." 

No  girls  were  left  out  of  Alice's  thought 
and  planning,  and  she  sought  especially,  and 
with  the  most  tactful  sympathy,  to  help  the 
Roman  Catholic  girls.  In  this  she  had  the 
cordial  help  of  Father  Gallen  of  the  Roman 
Catholic  Church  in  Florence,  a  village  near 
Northampton.  Father  Gallen  has  written, 
with  warm  Christian  sympathy,  of  his  im- 
pressions of  her  and  his  estimate  of  her  work: 

"  I  was  very  much  interested  in  the  work 
of  Miss  Alice  Jackson  while  she  lived  in 
Northampton.  Her  purpose  to  unite  the 
active  elements  engaged  in  Christian  work 
to  the  end  that  effective  results  might  be 
better  attained,  and  energies  conserved  in- 
stead of  wasted,  seemed  to  me,  a  member  of 


A  Memorial  49 

the  Catholic  body,  a  most  admirable  under- 
taking. She  seemed  to  realize  that  all  true  fol- 
lowers of  Christ  agree  in  the  essentials  of  what 
constitutes  holy  living,  and  that  such  agree- 
ment was  really  all  that  was  necessary  to  create 
in  any  community  a  working  force  for  virtue. 

"  She  found  in  the  college  girls  trained  to 
high  ideals  a  generous  enthusiasm  that 
prompted  them  to  give  freely  of  their  efforts 
towards  any  project  that  promised  the  uplift 
of  humanity.  These  young  women  found 
themselves  full  of  the  desire  to  accomplish 
something  consistent  with  highest  purpose, 
but  as  so  often  happens,  they  were  without  a 
master  of  the  vineyard  to  make  their  labour 
useful.  They  needed  some  one  like  to  them- 
selves, who  would  mark  the  way  by  leading, 
who  could  organize  and  direct,  yet  never 
usurp  the  supreme  leadership  which  always 
belongs  to  Christ. 

"  From  my  knowledge  of  the  splendid  re- 
sults that  followed  years  of  self-sacrificing 
labour,  I  am  convinced  that  the  Christian 
workers  of  Smith  College  found  the  leader 
they  needed  so  much  in  the  person  of  Miss 
Alice  Jackson.  She  enabled  them  to  direct 
their  best  energies  with  good  results  in  a 


50  Alice  Jackson 

spiritual  way  to  themselves  and  others.  All 
the  churches  benefited  by  her  work,  and  es- 
pecially my  own.  She  sent  me  teachers  for 
the  Sunday-school, — faithful,  self-denying 
college  girls.  The  distance  from  the  college 
to  my  church  is  two  miles,  and  some  of  these 
girls,  because  of  our  early  services  on  Sunday, 
were  forced  to  leave  their  houses  before  the 
breakfast  hour  and  to  fast  until  noon.  The 
college  students  who  combine  the  higher 
learning  with  the  higher  Christianity  cannot 
be  far  from  the  ideal  of  perfection. 

"  I  have  always  felt  that  Alice  Jackson  had 
splendid  natural  powers  for  Christian  work. 
She  was  most  gentle,  yet  persistent,  in  pur- 
suing her  object.  In  voice  and  manner  there 
was  a  sympathetic  quality  so  winning  as  to 
be  irresistible.  There  seemed  to  be  a  perfect 
consonance  between  her  charming  person- 
ality and  the  beautiful  teachings  of  the  Mas- 
ter she  served  and  loved  so  well.  However, 
I  like  to  think  that  her  great  success  in  her 
life-work  was  due  to  the  grace  supernatural, 
bestowed  by  a  loving  Father  in  the  light  of 
whose  Presence  I  trust  she  may  ever  dwell." 

The  love  borne  her  by  the  Roman  Catholic 
students  is  attested  by  the  beautiful  copy  of 


A  Memorial  51 

Edward  Clifford's  portrait  of  Father  Damien, 
which  now  hangs  in  the  Students'  Building 
with  an  inscription  saying  that  it  has  been 
placed  there  by  them  in  her  memory.  The 
two  personal  treasures  which  Alice  always 
had  with  her  were  a  little  framed  picture  of 
Father  Damien  and  a  verse  from  Robert 
Browning's  Epilogue  to  "Asolando."  The 
heroic  peasant  priest  who  in  the  leper  settle- 
ment of  Molokai  "  made  the  charnel-house 
life's  home  "  and  "  matched  love  with  death  " 
was  her  daily  inspiration  and  call  to  service. 
The  other  tangible  witness  to  the  value 
placed  upon  Alice's  effort  is  the  "  Alice  Jack- 
son Memorial  Fund,"  being  raised  by  Smith 
College  students  and  devoted  to  the  carrying 
on  of  the  Smith  College  Association  for 
Christian  Work  among  the  undergraduates. 
Continuance  of  work  seems  the  most  fitting 
tribute  to  her  who  found  inspiration  in 
Browning's  ideal, 

"  Who  never  turned  his  back  but  marched  breast- 
forward, 

Never  doubted  clouds  would  break, 
Never  dreamed  tho'  right  were  worsted,  wrong 

would  triumph, 

Held  we  fall  to  rise,  are  baffled  to  fight  better, 
Sleep  to  wake." 


52  Alice  Jackson 

Alice  was  a  thorough  student  of  the  con- 
ditions in  which  she  worked.  She  adapted 
herself  eagerly  to  the  facts  as  she  found  them, 
but  it  was  with  a  large  desire  to  understand 
them  thoroughly  and  to  press  on  to  better 
things.  There  is  a  paper  which  she  wrote  in 
reply  to  a  series  of  inquiries,  which  sets  forth 
her  judgments  on  a  number  of  questions  vital 
to  the  religious  life  of  college  students.  Some 
parts  of  her  replies  may  be  quoted  as  repre- 
senting her  convictions  on  some  of  the  fun- 
damental problems  of  college  life : 

" '  What  are  the  chief  obstacles  to  religious 
life  in  the  women's  colleges  ? 

"  In  Smith, — 1st.  The  busy  every-day  life. 
Some  of  the  girls  feel  that  they  have  not  time 
for  daily  Bible  study  and  prayer.  They  feel 
that  other  parts  of  the  college  life  need  more 
attention.  2d.  College  societies  and  hon- 
ours, which,  add  to  an  already  busy  life. 
This  is  an  obstacle  which  belongs  to  only  a 
few.  Some  of  us  belong  to  a  good  many 
societies.  I'm  speaking  from  a  personal  point 
of  view  now,  because  I  think  it  better  to  do 
so.  While  in  college  I  belonged,  and  do 
now,  to  most  of  the  societies  then  in  exist- 
ence. They  demanded  a  large  amount  of 


A  Memorial  53 

time.  I  felt  that  I  must  be  present  at  all 
their  meetings  and  must  give  the  best  I  had 
to  each  one.  It  is  hard  to  resign  from  a  so- 
ciety. I  hope  it  will  not  be  so  long,  for  I 
think  that  we  give  to  some  of  them  time  and 
strength  which  would  be  better  expended  in 
some  other  direction.  On  the  other  hand, 
the  societies  themselves  ought  to  be  a  train- 
ing for  Christian  Association  work.  If  we 
would  put  into  it  the  time  and  strength  that 
we  put  into  them,  we  would  accomplish  very 
much  more.  A  third  obstacle  is  Indifference. 
This  is  not  as  great  as  it  used  to  be.  4th. 
And  this  I  consider  the  greatest  of  all.  We 
are  content  with  the  good,  and  so  let  the  best 
slip  from  us.  We  seek  the  ethical  rather 
than  the  spiritual;  we  emphasize  a  moral 
rather  than  a  religious  life.  I  believe  it  is 
true  at  Smith  that '  the  greatest  enemy  to  the 
best  is  the  good.'  5th.  The  fear  of  not  ap- 
pearing broad.  We  dread  the  idea  of  nar- 
rowness, so  we  acquiesce  when  we  should  not. 
We  do  not  talk  enough  about  Christ.  We 
are  content  to  think  that  showing  Him  in  our 
lives  is  enough  and  half  the  time  we  don't  even 
do  that.  I  should  think  that  this  must  be  a 
decided  stumbling-block  to  some  girls  who 


54  Alice  Jackson 

do  not  believe  in  Him.  We  are  recognized 
in  our  little  college  world  as  Christians,  and 
we  apparently  don't  care  enough  about  Christ 
to  talk  about  Him.  We  may  say  that  we 
don't  do  it  because  our  love  for  Him  and  our 
knowledge  of  His  love  for  us  is  the  deepest 
thing  in  our  life,  but  we  know,  and  they 
know,  too,  that  is  not  the  real  reason,  which 
is— a  selfish  fear.  It's  cowardly,  and  they 
and  we  know  it.  6th.  We  are  too  apt  to 
wish  to  appear  all-rounded,  and  so  to  over- 
emphasize the  other  parts  of  college  life, — 
the  social  and  the  intellectual  and  the  ath- 
letic. If  we  fail  to  reach  all  girls  it  is  not  be- 
cause we  are  not '  all  rounded  ' :  it  is  because 
we  offer  to  them  less  than  the  best. 

" '  What  is  the  prevailing  attitude  in  the 
women's  colleges  among  the  students  as  to 
the  Bible  and  prayer  and  the  divinity  of 
Christ  ? 

"In  Smith  we  have  1,000  girls  in  college. 
I  do  not  believe  that  more  than  500  read  their 
Bibles  for  devotional  purposes  daily.  (And 
this  is  a  very  large  number.  In  thinking  it 
over  I  don't  believe  that  very  many  girls  read 
their  Bibles  daily :  I  think  a  larger  number 
intend  to  do  so.)  In  my  own  four  years  at 


A  Memorial  55 

college  I  don't  believe,  except  for  the  re- 
quired Bible  work  (and  I  did  not  do  it  much 
for  it)  that  I  ever  thought  of  reading  it,  and 
I  did  not  because  it  did  not  occur  to  me  to 
do  so.  I'm  sure  I  don't  know  why,  for  this 
certainly  was  contrary  to  my  home  training. 
I  believe,  however,  there  are  many  girls  here 
who  go  through  the  same  experience.  I  do 
not  believe,  however,  that  any  girl  could  say 
now  that '  it  had  not  occurred  to  her  to  read 
her  Bible  for  devotional  reasons/  Every  girl 
in  college  has  been  told  iri  detail  this  year 
individually  (for  the  most  part)  about  the 
student  Bible  classes,  which  have  for  their 
distinct  aim  a  daily  systematic  study  of  the 
Bible,  striving  to  teach  one  to  depend  upon 
daily  Bible  study  and  to  make  it  a  habit  of 
life. 

"  «  Prayer.'  Most  girls,  I  believe,  pray  each 
day.  Some,  I  believe,  thoughtlessly.  But 
there  is  a  growing  belief  in  the  power  of 
prayer.  Many  of  us  are  growing  daily  to 
believe  that  we  simply  could  not  live  without 
it,  and  that  it  is  the  solution  of  all  problems. 
We  have  prayer  circles  among  the  alumnae 
and  in  the  college.  Our  week  of  prayer 
meant  more  to  the  college  than  any  other 


56  Alice  Jackson 

part  of  the  association  work  has  done  this 
year.  Many  of  us  believe  that  the  busier 
the  day  and  the  more  difficult  the  problem 
that  we  have  to  meet,  the  greater  the  need  of 
prayer. 

"  <  The  Divinity  of  Christ.' 

"  Many  of  the  girls  do  not  believe  in  the 
divinity  of  Christ.  Many  who  have  come  to 
college  believing  it,  question  it,  but  the 
majority  of  these  come  out  all  right  in  the 
end.  The  question  of  the  divinity  of  Christ 
comes  up  almost  every  year.  I  believe  this 
is  due  not  only  to  the  college  life  and  trend 
of  thought  (though  it  is  due  largely  to  this) 
but  also  to  the  spirit  of  the  time.  I  have 
had  letters  from  and  talks  with  several  peo- 
ple during  the  last  two  or  three  years,  who 
represent  almost  every  side  of  life,  asking  me 
to  tell  them  definitely  what  I  believe  in  re- 
gard to  Christ,  and  especially  as  to  His 
divinity.  It  seems  to  me  that  the  one  and 
sole  aim  of  the  Christian  Association  should 
be  to  emphasize  the  divine  Christ,  and  if  we 
fail  to  do  so,  we  fail  in  our  commission.  We 
have  too  many  prayer- meetings  here  with 
such  subjects  as  «  Sincerity/  What  we  need 
is  '  Jesus  Christ.' 


A  Memorial  57 

" '  Is  there  any  positive  sin  in  the  women's 
colleges  that  is  a  bar  to  religious  life  and 
power  ? ' 

"  I've  heard  it  said  that  a  few  of  the  girls 
tell  lies  in  order  to  prolong  their  vacations 
and  so  on.  I've  never  seen  any  such  case 
and  the  popular  sentiment  is  against  it. 

"  We  do  not  keep  Sunday  as  we  should. 
It  is  made  too  much  of  a  social  day,  too 
much  studying  is  done  on  it.  We  are  trying 
hard  to  have  a  change  come  through  popular 
sentiment. 

"  The  prevailing  sin  in  a  women's  college 
is  selfishness  and  short-sightedness.  We 
look  too  much  to  the  present.  We  try  to 
crowd  into  these  four  years  much  that  will 
mean  much  to  us  personally,  and  we  leave 
eternity  out, — crowd  it  out  of  our  thoughts. 

" '  What  are  the  chief  temptations  of  women 
students  ? ' 

"  Ambition.  We  wish  to  achieve  much 
intellectually  and  socially.  We  like  to  be 
popular  and  so  we  let  little  things  slide  which 
we  ought  not  to  countenance.  We  put  off 
deciding  questions  that  we  ought  to  decide 
'  until  after  we  graduate/  if  they  are  unpleas- 
ant or  make  us  uncomfortable.  We  crowd 


58  Alice  Jackson 

our  days  with  so  many  things  that  we  say 
we  have  '  no  time '  to  think  of  them.  We 
are  never  alone.  We  won't  give  ourselves 
the  opportunity  of  quietly  thinking  things 
out  and  facing  questions  of  duty.  We  tell 
ourselves  that  after  college  we  shall  have 
time  and  leisure  for  such  things.  At  the 
close  of  college  positions  that  please  and 
tempt  us  are  offered  to  us  and  we  take  them, 
rather  than  others  which  would  not  appeal 
so  much  at  first  sight.  I'm  sure  that  if  I  had 
not  really  the  desire  to  go  on  the  foreign 
field,  I  should  have  accepted  some  such  posi- 
tions that  are  offered  from  time  to  time,  and 
should  comfort  myself  with  the  thought  that 
if  they  did  not  call  for  distinctly  religious 
work,  they  would  achieve  good  somehow  or 
other.  My  actual  desire  to  be  on  the  foreign 
field  has  been  my  own  personal  safeguard. 
But  many  have  not  this  desire,  and  so  they 
let  themselves  drift  into  other  kinds  of  work. 
If  we  all  of  us  here  could  only  learn  to  face 
questions  as  they  come,  honestly  and  fairly, 
instead  of  putting  them  off,  I'm  sure  we 
would  achieve  more.  We  know  the  needs  of 
the  world,  we  realize  our  own  privileges,  but 
we  love  ourselves  and  our  comfort  too  much, 


THE  SCHOOL  GIRL 


A  Memorial  59 

and  we  will  not  let  ourselves  be  troubled  by 
thoughts  which  we  think  or  pretend  to  think 
are  '  Unnecessary.' " 

Throughout  her  two  years  as  secretary  at 
Smith,  Alice  kept  constantly  in  mind  her 
missionary  purpose.  She  thought  of  plans 
of  going  to  the  foreign  field  in  ways  which 
would  not  involve  loss  to  the  Missionary 
Board  through  her  early  death,  and  which 
would  enable  her  to  determine,  experimen- 
tally, whether  she  could  endure  the  climate 
and  do  the  work.  If  it  was  shown  that  she 
could,  she  would  then  ask  appointment. 
Even  the  doctors'  frank  words  to  her  could 
not  destroy  her  hopes.  The  following  let- 
ters, written  in  1903  to  a  friend  in  the  Pres- 
byterian Board,  will  show  what  passed  in  her 
mind : 

"  This  is  to  tell  you  that  I  have  decided 
not  to  go  to  China  next  year  and  also  not  to 
go  to  the  Mountain  Whites.  I  have  been 
asked  definitely  to  go  to  Miss  Jewell's  school 
in  Shanghai,  and  she  has  told  me  that  should 
I  be  all  right  at  the  end  of  the  year,  and 
should  the  Board  feel  that  I  am  capable  of 
doing  any  of  its  work,  I  might  resign  in  its 
favour.  I  have  hoped  very  much  that  it 


60  Alice  Jackson 

would  be  right  for  me  to  do  this.  But  it  is 
not, — this  year,  at  any  rate. 

"  Dr.  Bovaird  told  me  that  I  could  not  live 
very  many  years, — or  months,  I  think  he 
said, — in  either  place.  I  think  I  should  go 
just  the  same,  if  I  were  not  convinced  that 
it  would  bring  great  sorrow  to  mother  and 
injure  her,  perhaps,  physically.  In  every 
other  way  it  seems  to  me  that  the  great  need 
of  China  would  justify  me  making  the  ex- 
periment. Please  do  not  think  that  by  say- 
ing this  I  mean  that  I  am  big  or  good 
enough  for  China,  because  I  realize  very 
keenly  that  I  am  not,  but  the  need  (if  better 
people  cannot  go)  justifies  to  me  almost  any 
experiment. 

"  I  did  not  tell  Dr.  McAfee  that  I  wished 
to  go  into  the  home  work,  because  I  under- 
stood from  him  that  he  had  more  applica- 
tions than  positions,  and  I  shall  never  be 
willing  to  fill  a  position  that  some  one  else 
can  fill  better. 

"  I  believe  that  foreign  missions  have  be- 
come a  part  of  my  life  now,  and  it  does  not 
seem  to  me  (unless  I  find  it  is  a  wrong  de- 
sire) that  I  shall  ever  give  up  the  hope  of 
going.  But  I  never  shall  feel  justified  in 


A  Memorial  61 

filling  any  position  that  some  one  else  can 
fill. 

"  I  have  never  mentioned  either  of  these 
two  places  at  home  because  I  knew  that  I 
must  first  decide  for  myself,  and  that  by 
prayer,  and  then  I  felt  that  should  I  decide 
not  to  go,  it  would  only  be  selfish  to  keep 
the  family  in  suspense. 

"  I  am  not  going  to  write  or  talk  to  you 
again  about  going  out  on  the  foreign  field. 
When  I  find  that  I  have  the  right  to  go  I 
will  tell  you,  if  I  may,  and  in  the  meantime, 
I  am  going  to  do  all  that  I  can  to  grow  bet- 
ter physically,  mentally  and  spiritually,  so 
that  if  the  time  ever  comes,  I  may  have  a 
better  preparation. 

"  Now  may  I  thank  you  again  for  all  the 
time  you  have  given  to  me.  I  feel  so  sorry 
that  I  have  taken  it  so  many  times,  and  I 
should  not  have  done  so  had  there  not  al- 
ways been  the  hope,  as  there  is  still,  of  going. 

"  Please  do  not  answer  this  letter.  It 
surely  is  one  that  needs  no  answer." 

"  I  asked  Dr.  Bovaird  on  Saturday  if  he 
thought  that  I  should  ever  be  absolutely 
well  again,  and  he  said  no.  I  asked  him 


62  Alice  Jackson 

that  because  I  want  to  do  what  is  most  hon- 
est, and  if  you  think  it  best  to  take  my  name 
from  the  list  of  candidates  of  the  Presby- 
terian Board,  will  you  please  do  so  ?  I 
know  Dr.  Bovaird  does  not  think  that  I  shall 
ever  go  on  the  foreign  field.  Somehow  or 
other  I  do,  and  so  I  am  going  on  in  just  the 
same  way  to  try  to  be  most  fully  prepared 
when  the  time  comes  to  go.  If  you  think 
that  it  is  best  to  take  my  name  off  now,  I'll 
apply  again  when  that  time  comes. 

"  I  don't  know  exactly  what  to  do  about 
taking  my  name  off  the  volunteer  list.  On 
the  one  hand  I  feel  that  I  may  be  harming 
the  cause  by  having  it  there,  and  not  going, 
and  on  the  other,  if  I  take  it  away  I'm  afraid 
some  people  will  think  that  it  is  because  I 
don't  care  to  go.  -  I  don't  mind  for  myself, 
but  I  do  for  the  cause.  Somehow  or  other 
I  do  seem  to  know  so  very  many  people  who 
do  not  know  any  other  person  who  is  inter- 
ested in  missions  except  myself.  I'm  going  to 
think  this  over  and  find  out  what  is  right  to  do. 

"  Please  do  not  answer  this  letter,  but 
please  do  just  what  is  best  about  taking  my 
name  off  the  list,  and  when  I  come  home  in 
the  summer  I'll  find  out  what  you  have  done. 


A  Memorial  63 

It  does  not  seem  to  me  now  as  if  I  could  or 
shall  ever  give  up  the  hope  of  going. 

"  Mr.  Jays  spoke  to  us  last  night  and  sev- 
eral of  the  girls  are  thinking  of  the  foreign 
field.  I  wish  that  I  did  more  for  the  Volun- 
teer Movement.  I  do  so  little,  and  I  don't 
know  exactly  how  to  do  more." 

"  I've  heard  again  from  the  school  of 
which  I  spoke  to  you  in  Shanghai,  and  they 
have  told  me  that  the  question  of  my  health 
need  not  stand  in  the  way  of  my  going  there. 
When  I  wrote,  I  said  it  was  very  doubtful 
whether  I  could  go.  If  I  could,  it  would  not 
be  for  another  year,  and  if  after  a  year  there 
I  had  proved  that  physically  I  could  stand 
the  climate,  etc.,  that  I  should  wish  to  be 
transferred  to  the  Board  if  you  still  needed 
me.  I  shall,  of  course,  do  nothing  definite 
until  I've  seen  you  and  until  I've  talked  it 
over  with  the  family,  which  I'm  afraid  I  have 
no  right  to  do  this  summer. 

"  I'm  enclosing  some  questions  which  I'm 
sending  to  the  incoming  class,  together  with 
a  letter  describing  some  of  the  Association 
work.  Each  one  will  also  have  a  letter  from 
some  other  girl  in  college,  a  report  of  the 


64  Alice  Jackson 

last  year's  work  and  a  handbook  giving  the 
constitution  of  the  Association.  I  have  the 
names  of  two  or  three  hundred  girls  already 
who  are  to  enter,  and  more  will  be  sent  in 
August. 

"  Every  day  now  brings  many  letters  from 
alumnae  and  undergraduates  expressing  their 
interest  in  the  work,  and  so  in  looking  for- 
ward to  next  year  there  can  be  nothing  but 
hope  and  trust." 

The  questions  which  she  enclosed  were  the 
following  : 

"  The  Smith  College  Association  for  Chris- 
tian Work. 

"  What  church  (denomination)  do  you  at- 
tend ? 

"  Are  you  a  member  ? 

"  Do  you  belong  to  a  Young  People's  So- 
ciety ? 

"  Are  you  an  officer  or  a  member  of  any 
committee  ? 

"  Do  you  take  any  active  part  in  its  meet- 
ings ? 

"  Are  you  a  member  of  any  Bible  Class  ? 

"  Have  you  ever  been  on  a  missionary 
committee  or  helped  with  any  missionary 
meeting  ? 


A  Memorial  65 

"  Have  you  done  any  philanthropic  work 
in  your  town  or  city  ? 

"  In  what  branch  of  your  home  (church  or 
city)  work  are  you  most  interested  ? 

"  What  is  the  name  and  address  of  your 
pastor  and  of  the  president  of  your  Young 
People's  Society  ? 

"  Will  it  be  possible  to  plan  that  a  letter 
be  written  by  you  each  year  to  your  church 
or  Young  People's  Society,  telling  of  the 
Christian  Association  work  of  the  college, 
and  also  that  one  be  written  by  the  church 
or  society  to  you,  telling  of  its  work  ? 

"  What  will  your  college  address  be  ?  " 

She  herself  wrote  by  hand  a  special  letter  to 
each  of  the  new  students  who  came  to  Smith 
in  the  fall  of  1903.  The  next  year  she  de- 
cided that  she  ought  not  to  remain  longer 
than  the  two  years.  In  January,  1904,  she 
wrote  to  one  of  her  older  sisters  : 

"  For  a  long  time  I  have  been  feeling  that 
I  may  not  come  back  here  next  year.  I 
have  felt  that  some  one  of  a  different  type 
may  appeal  better.  The  people  in  college  do 
not  think  so,  but  the  question  of  the  limit  of 
this  position  has  come  up  and  it  ought  to  be 
two  years, — so  very  likely  I  shall  not  comq 


66  Alice  Jackson 

back.  The  plans  that  I  had  thought  of  for 
next  year  are  not  to  be  mine,  because  of  my 
health.  I  had  thought  of  the  Mountain 
Whites.  As  to  a  position, — I  think  that  I 
shall  find  one  and  shall  not  decide  on  any- 
thing until  Easter  time." 

The  college  wished  her  to  stay,  and  when 
she  decided  that  she  could  not,  Professor 
Wood  wrote  to  her : 

"  The  Advisory  Committee  wish  me  to 
convey  to  you  what  I  am  sure  each  has  ex- 
pressed in  a  less  formal  way,  our  very  great 
appreciation  of  your  work  with  the  Associa- 
tion. The  fact  that  we  wished  so  strongly 
to  keep  your  services  for  another  year  speaks 
for  our  appreciation.  We  believe  that  you 
have  in  all  things  tried  to  do  what  seemed 
best  for  the  work.  We  feel  that  you  have 
done  just  what  was  needed  at  that  particular 
juncture  in  our  history  ;  and  we  are  glad  we 
could  have  your  labours. 

"  Trusting  the  wisdom  and  the  love  of  God 
to  guide  your  future,  as  it  has  your  past,  I 
am,  etc." 

While  she  was  at  Smith  College  as  secre- 
tary, she  saw  repeatedly  the  physician  who 
had  disapproved  of  her  going  out  as  a  for- 


A  Memorial  67 

eign  missionary,  and  after  one  of  her  inter- 
views with  him  she  wrote  in  the  spring  of 
1903  to  the  Student  Volunteer  Movement : 

"  For  the  last  two  weeks  I  have  been 
anxious  to  write  you  about  my  volunteering. 
When  I  volunteered  in  1900,  I  felt  that  I 
should  very  likely  be  able  to  go  on  the  for- 
eign field  soon,  but  I  have  been  unable  to  do 
so  on  account  of  health.  Last  Christmas  I 
talked  things  over  with  my  doctor  (Dr.  David 
Bovaird,  the  examining  physician  of  the 
Presbyterian  Board)  and  the  opinion  that  he 
held  was  that  I  probably  never  could  go. 
Two  weeks  ago  he  told  me  that  I  very  likely 
shall  never  be  any  better. 

"  I  still  believe  that  I  shall  go  to  the  foreign 
field,  however.  I  wrote  one  of  the  secretaries 
to  see  whether  he  thought  that  it  would  be 
best  to  take  my  name  from  the  lists  of  candi- 
dates, and  he  has  told  me  that  the  Board  is  will- 
ing to  let  my  relation  to  it  remain  unchanged. 

"  I've  often  wondered  whether  it  is  right 
for  me  to  be  counted  a  volunteer.  I'd  rather 
be  a  volunteer  than  anything  except  a  mis- 
sionary, but  if  it  is  hurting  the  cause  to  have 
me  counted  as  one  and  stay  '  at  home/  I 
should  rather  have  my  name  taken  from  the 


68  Alice  Jackson 

list  and  volunteer  again  when  there  is  more 
actual  prospect  of  my  going. 

"  I  don't  know  myself  which  will  do  the 
most  harm, — to  have  my  name  enrolled 
among  the  volunteers  or  to  take  it  off.  Like 
all  other  volunteers,  I  suppose,  I've  lots  and 
lots  of  friends  all  over  the  country  who  know 
about  missions  only  to  the  extent  that  I  want 
to  be  a  missionary,  and  unless  I  could  ex- 
plain to  them  why  I  did  not  continue  to  be 
a  volunteer  they  would  think  that  I  no  longer 
cared  about  it  or,  more  likely,  had  chosen  to 
stay  at  home  to  work.  On  the  other  hand, 
there  is  always  the  cry  that  people  volunteer 
and  don't  go.  Dr.  Root  advised  me  at 
Christmas  time  not  to  withdraw  my  name.  I 
have  not  written  her  the  doctor's  last  opinion. 

"  Will  you  please  (without  considering  my 
personal  desires)  let  me  know  which  course 
you  think  is  best  for  me  to  pursue  to  harm 
least  the  Volunteer  Movement  ?  I  am  sorry 
to  bother  you  about  this,  but  it  seems  more 
honest  to  write  the  situation." 

She  was  advised  to  let  her  name  remain  on 
the  rolls  of  the  Movement,  and  was  willing 
to  do  so.  But  her  conscience  kept  the  mat- 
ter in  view. 


A  Memorial  69 

In  the  fall  of  1903  the  Rev.  Harlan  P. 
Beach  wrote  complimenting  her  on  the  sue- 
cess  of  a  missionary  conference  at  Smith,  at- 
tended by  delegates  from  the  colleges  and 
schools  in  the  Connecticut  Valley.  She  was 
never  willing  to  take  any  credit  for  success- 
ful work  which  she  could  possibly  pass  on  to 
others,  and  she  wrote  in  reply : 

"  Please  do  not  think  the  success  of  the 
conference  was  in  any  way  due  to  me.  Mr. 
Kilborne  (who  had  charge  of  the  conference) 
thought  of  it  and  called  a  meeting  of  repre- 
sentatives from  each  college  to  talk  it  over 
last  spring.  The  real  success,  I  think,  came 
as  a  direct  answer  to  prayer  first,  and  second, 
from  the  help  and  inspiration  given  by  the 
speakers. 

"  I  do  not  think  that  any  of  us  feel  that  we 
have  done  anything  for  which  we  should  re- 
ceive any  credit,  but  we  all  do  feel  the  hap- 
piness and  the  thankfulness  that  have  come 
through  the  inspiration  of  the  conference. 
I  am  writing  this  note  because  I  hate  to 
think  that  you  think  that  any  of  the  credit 
of  the  conference  belongs  to  me.  It  does 
not  even  in  the  slightest  degree.  Please 
don't  acknowledge  this  note.  I  should  not 


70  Alice  Jackson 

have  written  it  if  I  thought  you  would,  or  that 
it  would  add  one  more  to  the  many  letters 
you  must  receive  daily. 

"  Thank  you  again  so  much  for  your  kind 
letter." 

She  left  Smith  in  June,  when  the  college 
closed.  "  Her  presence,"  wrote  the  head  of 
the  house  where  she  had  lived  during  her 
secretaryship, — "  Her  presence  was  like  sun- 
shine in  the  house,  and  the  thought  that  she 
would  return  to  us  sometimes  was  a  source  of 
joy.  Her  one  thought  was  of  helping 
others."  It  was  indeed  ever  and  only  that. 
Those  who  knew  her  best  can  bear  convinc- 
ing testimony.  They  recall  her  loving  un- 
selfishness to  little  children,  her  utter  self- 
forgetfulness  in  giving  help  whenever  men  or 
women  or  little  ones  needed  help.  And 
never,  amid  all  the  sweetest  memories  of 
their  lives,  will  they  forget  the  silver  ripple  of 
her  laughter  or  the  golden  radiance  of  her 
glorious  hair  around  and  above  a  face  where 
strength  and  a  beauty  all  her  own  and  as  true 
love  as  ever  shone  from  any  eyes,  were 
mingled  together. 


VI 

HER  SUMMERS  AND  HER 
CORRESPONDENCE 

IN  the  summer  Alice  went  to  the  Young 
Women's  Conference  at  Silver  Bay, 
where  she  had  gone  often  with  the 
Smith  delegation  and  where  she  did  as  much 
for  the  young  women  from  other  and  smaller 
institutions  as  she  did  for  her  own.  In  the 
statement  regarding  religious  conditions  in 
the  women's  colleges  which  has  been  already 
quoted,  she  wrote :  "  I  think  it  would  be 
well  to  give  the  representatives  from  the 
smaller  colleges  the  best  rooms  and  the  best 
accommodations  in  every  way  at  the  sum- 
mer conferences.  If  any  delegations  must 
be  scattered  let  those  of  the  larger  colleges 
be  the  ones."  Watchful  always  for  those 
who  were  being  overlooked,  she  arranged 
meetings  for  the  waitresses  and  servants 
whose  work  kept  them  out  of  the  meetings. 
She  was  ever  looking  for  the  present  oppor- 
tunity. Her  longing  for  China  made  her 


72  Alice  Jackson 

only  the  keener  and  more  eager  to  do  all 
that  she  could  for  those  who  were  near  at 
hand.  This  summer  she  went,  also,  to  the 
Young  Women's  Conference  at  Northfield, 
and  then  on  for  a  rest  with  friends  at 
Diamond  Pond,  New  Hampshire.  There,  as 
everywhere,  she  found  people  to  be  loved 
and  ways  of  helping  them,  and  rejoiced  all 
the  more  in  the  beauty  of  the  lakes  and  the 
balsam  and  birch  forests  and  the  clear,  uplift- 
ing air,  as  she  wished  that  others  might  share 
them  with  her.  She  found  these  golden 
days,  too,  for  her  correspondence.  She  was 
the  most  tireless  letter-writer.  At  Christmas 
time  she  wrote  to  scores  of  friends, — little 
personal  notes  that  they  treasured  as  their 
best  possessions,  and  throughout  the  years 
she  kept  in  touch  with  friends  in  all  situations 
in  life  whom  she  had  met  and  whom  she 
held  and  cheered.  There  was  one  Roman 
Catholic  girl  whom  she  had  come  to  know  at 
Smith,  to  whom  she  wrote  regularly  letters 
of  comfort  and  courage.  The  acquaintance 
had  begun  before  the  girl  came  to  college. 
Alice  had  written  to  her  one  of  the  letters 
already  mentioned  as  having  gone  to  all  in- 
coming students.  This  was  the  letter : 


A  Memorial  73 

"  MY  DEAR  Miss : 

"  It  was  so  nice  a  short  time  ago  to 
hear  that  you  are  coming  to  Smith  College 
this  autumn,  and  we  shall  all  be  very  glad  to 
welcome  you  there. 

"  You  will  enjoy  the  college  life,  I  am  sure. 
It  is  so  informal  and  we  do  have  so  many 
jolly  times  together. 

"  A  little  later  in  the  summer  (if  you  have 
not  already  received  them)  you  will  receive  a 
copy  of  our  Christian  Association  report  for 
last  year  and  a  handbook  giving  its  consti- 
tution and  an  account  of  some  of  the  other 
sides  of  the  college  life.  I  do  hope  that 
there  will  be  something  in  the  Christian  As- 
sociation that  will  appeal  to  you.  Its  work 
is  very  varied  and  there  is  a  great  deal  of  it, 
for  besides  the  Bible  and  Mission  Study 
Classes,  which  we  have,  we  do  a  great  deal 
of  extension  work  in  and  about  Northampton. 

"  I  am  enclosing  some  questions,  which  I 
am  going  to  ask  you  to  be  kind  enough  to 
answer  and  to  return  to  me  this  summer. 

"  I  shall  be  in  Northampton  at  9  Belmont 
Avenue  on  and  after  September  I9th,  and 
Miss  Van  Kleeck,  the  president  of  the  asso- 
ciation, will  return  to  the  Tyler  House  the 


74  Alice  Jackson 

day  before.  If  at  any  time,  and  in  any  part 
of  the  college  life,  I  can  be  of  the  least  help 
please  let  me,  for  it  will  be  such  a  pleasure." 

The  reply  indicated  that  the  newcomer 
was  a  Roman  Catholic,  so  Alice  wrote  again 
a  personal  friendly  letter. 

When  the  new  student  came  Alice  at  once 
took  her  into  her  heart.  When  her  health 
broke  down  under  the  effort  of  self-support 
in  college,  Alice's  love  came  to  her  assist- 
ance, and  when  later  she  went  West  and  for 
a  long  time  suffered  in  a  hospital,  Alice's  let- 
ters brought  her  ever  new  courage  and  also 
sometimes  the  material  help  which  always 
accompanied  Alice's  love  for  any  whom  she 
could  help,  and  which  if  her  own  resources 
were  exhausted  she  could  always  command 
from  some  of  her  friends.  Thus  she  wrote : 

"  Don't  begin  to  work  too  soon,  dear. 
Give  us  the  pleasure  of  feeling  that  you  are 
resting  a  little  longer  and  then  you  really  will 
grow  stronger.  I  am  going  to  ask  you  to  do 
a  big  and  a  hard  thing,  and  that  is  to  send 
me  word  about  any  lack  of  money,  a  week 
or  two  before  you  think  it  will  give  out. 

"  You  are  a  dear,  brave  girl,  and  I  love 
you  for  it,  as  well  as  for  yourself." 


A  Memorial  75 

"  The  girls  at  Smith  are  anxious  to  give 
you  a  Christmas  present,  and  they  have  just 
sent  me  a  check  for  $i  16  for  you.  Will  you 
please  send  me  your  address  so  that  I  can 
send  it  at  once  to  you  ?  I  am  so  happy 
about  it,  dear  child,  and  I  hope  that  for  a  few 
months,  at  least,  you  will  not  work,  but  take 
a  real  solid  rest." 

To  this  friend  she  wrote  one  of  her  letters 
from  Diamond  Pond : 

"  I  hate  to  think  of  you  as  suffering,  and 
so  many,  many  times  I  have  longed  to  bear 
some  of  it  for  you.  One  of  my  sisters  has 
been  very  ill  this  summer,  and  that,  with 
many  other  unexpected  events,  has  kept  me 
from  writing  to  some  of  my  friends  as  often 
as  I  have  wished  to  do.  And  yet  there  is 
always  so  much  time  each  day  when  one 
thinks  lovingly  of  them.  And  very  often 
my  thoughts  turn  lovingly  to  the  dear  friend 
who  has  taught  me  how  much  beauty  may 
come  into  a  life  '  though  suffering.'  Some- 
times when  I  feel  the  need  of  physical  strength 
most,  it  seems  to  me  that  the  strength  of  God 
is  most  with  me.  And  you,  so  much  more 
fully  than  I,  have  learned  that  lesson.  .  .  . 

"  Write  me  whenever  you  feel  like  doing 


76  Alice  Jackson 

so,  dear.  My  time  is  much  more  my  own 
now,  and  you  know  I  am  always  deeply  in- 
terested in  all  of  your  plans.  I  have  just  re- 
newed my  stamp  supply  and  am  going  to 
put  a  few  of  them  in  this  letter.  You  had 
better  address  everything  to  Englewood, 
N.  J.,  for  I  shall  not  be  here  long.  This  is 
such  a  beautiful  spot  above  the  White  Moun- 
tains. I  do  wish  that  you  might  share  it 
with  me." 

Even  these  quotations  give  a  very  inade- 
quate idea  of  the  ministry  of  Alice  in  her 
notes  and  letters.  On  railroad  trains  and  in 
the  spare  minutes  of  a  visit  to  friends  she 
would  find  time  to  write,  and  her  little  mes- 
sages came  to  burdened  or  perplexed  or  lone- 
some hearts,  just  in  their  time  of  need. 


VII 

IN  THE  WELFARE  WORK  AT 
LUDLOW 

IN  the  fall  of  1904  Alice  went  to  Lud- 
low,  Massachusetts,  as  secretary  of  the 
Welfare  Work  of  the  Manufacturing  As- 
sociates. The  factories  made  coarse  textiles 
and  employed  2,OOO  people,  mostly  unskilled 
foreign  labour  and  largely  women  and  chil- 
dren. The  company  had  b  uilt  and  owned  most 
of  the  village  streets,  also  the  water  and  electric 
light  service.  They  had  some  300  houses, 
mostly  single  cottages  with  small  grounds 
about  them.  The  town  authorities  managed 
the  schools,  which  contained  over  600  chil- 
dren ;  but  no  instruction  was  given  in  cook- 
ing or  sewing.  The  village  had  a  beautiful 
library,  containing  a  reading-room  and  some 
3,000  carefully  selected  books.  There  was  a 
well-organized  men's  club,  using  an  old  mill 
building  for  headquarters  and  with  a  large 
athletic  field.  Of  the  women's  work  a  state- 
ment of  the  conditions,  which  was  furnished 
Alice,  said : 

77 


78  Alice  Jackson 

"  The  women's  club  has  temporary  quar- 
ters in  an  old  office  building  ;  and  the  women 
also  use  the  vacant  mill  for  basket-ball  and 
athletic  work ;  and  here  also  are  frequently 
held  Saturday  evening  dances. 

"  There  is  soon  to  be  built  a  large  club 
house  for  the  men,  containing  gymnasium 
and  swimming-pool,  both  of  which  will  be 
reserved  for  the  women  and  children  at  cer- 
tain times.  An  addition  for  the  women  and 
children  will  be  provided  as  soon  as  the  man- 
agement believe  that  the  best  line  of  work 
has  been  satisfactorily  established. 

"  While  the  men's  club  is  patronized  by  a 
large  and  increasing  number  without  much 
regard  to  nationality,  the  women's  club  has 
become  rather  exclusive  and  does  not  reach 
the  women  and  children  most  needing  its  in- 
fluence ;  and  this  is  one  of  the  most  difficult 
problems  before  the  social  worker,  and  can 
perhaps  only  be  solved  by  beginning  with 
the  children  before  they  leave  the  school ; 
and  it  is  here  that  the  main  work  must  be 
done.  At  fourteen  most  of  the  children  leave 
school  with  the  usual  primary  education,  and 
begin  work  in  the  mills ;  and  it  is  the  wish 
of  the  company  to  supplement  the  school 


A  Memorial  79 

education  by  interesting  these  children  in  the 
proper  use  of  the  library,  by  classes  in  per- 
sonal hygiene,  athletics,  swimming,  dancing 
and  gardening.  For  the  boys  instruction  as 
to  their  duties  as  citizens  of  the  republic ;  for 
the  girls  lessons  in  cooking,  sewing  and  care 
of  the  house.  In  short,  to  create  out  of  these 
children  of  foreign  parentage,  citizens  of  the 
United  States,  men  and  women  with  sound 
and  healthy  bodies,  who  will  enter  with  in- 
telligence and  interest  into  their  village  and 
household  activities  ;  and  be  acquainted  with 
the  most  simple  forms  of  rational  enjoyment." 

This  was  the  work  which  Alice  took  up 
for  the  year  1904-05.  All  the  while  she  was 
fighting  her  battle  for  health,  and  even  for  life, 
but  with  a  smile  so  cheerful  and  an  enthusiasm 
for  others'  interests  so  genuine  that  no  one 
but  her  doctor  and  a  few  of  her  closest  friends 
knew  of  the  struggle  that  was  going  on. 

To  one  of  her  sisters  she  wrote  from  Lud- 
low  in  November : 

"  Ludlow  is  a  small  but  very  pretty  town. 
It  is  entirely  given  up  to  the  factory.  Al- 
most every  one  has  something  or  other  to  do 
with  it,  and  to  me  it  is  very  novel. 

"  There  is  a  large  population  of  Polanders, 


80  Alice  Jackson 

and  it  is  very  fascinating  to  watch  them  at 
noon  go  to  their  work  after  dinner.  They 
wear  shawls,  some  beautifully  embroidered, 
and  then  a  coloured  handkerchief  over  their 
heads.  Large  numbers  live  in  the  same 
house.  They  each  buy  their  own  piece  of 
meat,  but  cook  it  in  a  common  pot.  Then 
there  are  Italians,  French,  Scotch  and  Irish. 
I  can  hardly  understand  the  Scotch.  One 
girl  has  the  most  beautiful  voice.  She  came 
down  the  other  night  and  sang  <  Annie 
Laurie '  and  some  other  songs  to  us.  I  do 
wish  that  her  voice  might  be  trained. 

"  I  had  to  go  to  Holyoke  last  Sunday  after- 
noon, so  I  went  to  Northampton  for  the 
night  and  did  have  such  a  good  time.  I  had 
to  come  back  early  the  next  morning,  but 
saw  a  good  many  people  in  the  meantime. 
I  have  so  many  friends  in  Northampton  and 
Springfield  and  all  through  this  part  of  the 
country,  and  though  I  shall  not  be  able  to  go 
to  see  them,  yet  it  is  nice  to  feel  that  they 
are  so  near.  Just  at  present  I  rather  enjoy 
being  alone  part  of  each  day.  I  rest  and  do 
my  writing,  and  the  time  slips  away  only  too 
quickly.  I  do  enjoy  the  work,  and  I  am 
really  growing  to  know  the  people.  .  .  . 


A  Memorial  81 

"  I  feel  one  of  the  most  beautiful  lessons  I 
have  learned  the  last  two  or  three  years  is  to 
trust  in  God  and  not  be  anxious.  The  kind 
of  work  I  have  been  doing  since  I  left  college 
has  brought  me  so  closely  into  touch  with 
the  sorrows  and  disappointments  of  others, 
and  so  I  have  had  a  very  especial  oppor- 
tunity of  learning  that  God  can  help  and 
comfort,  when  human  love  and  sympathy  are 
all  too  small. 

"  You  would  like  this  quaint  little  town 
and  all  the  pretty  little  houses  which  are 
being  put  up  on  it.  They  are  using  a  stone 
that  is  really  cement,  and  it  will  be  interesting 
to  see  how  the  experiment  works.  I  started 
this  letter  this  morning,  and  now  it  is  evening." 

It  was  a  characteristic  year  which  Alice 
spent  at  Ludlow.  Those  whom  she  met  she 
won  and  wherever  any  one  was  to  be  reached 
there  she  was  to  be  found.  After  her  death 
a  classmate  who  had  gone  to  Ludlow  to  give 
cooking  classes  wrote  :  "  The  whole  village 
feels  that  we  have  lost  a  true  friend  and  no  one 
can  estimate  how  great  her  influence  here  is. 
Occasionally  an  incident  comes  to  light  which 
adds  to  my  wonder  at  the  amount  she  ac- 
complished in  so  short  a  time." 


84  Alice  Jackson 

done  for  them,  and  she  succeeded,  to  some 
degree,  in  her  efforts  to  bring  about  more 
cordial  relations. 

"  On  her  first  coming,  the  active  members 
of  the  institute,  having  in  mind  previous  un- 
pleasant experiences,  were  a  little  shy  in  their 
acceptance  of  her  good  offices,  but  it  needed 
only  a  few  weeks'  intercourse  with  her  to 
make  every  one  of  them — without  exception 
— her  devoted  friends,  and  proud  to  be  so. 

"  She  made  arrangements  for  the  resump- 
tion of  evening  cooking  classes  for  the  mill 
employees,  securing  as  a  director  for  them, 
Miss  Florence  Lilly,  a  former  college  friend, 
who  was  a  resident  of  a  neighbouring  city. 

"  Then  she  threw  herself  into  the  work  of 
getting  hold  of  the  young  people  in  after- 
noon and  evening  sewing  and  other  classes 
and  soon  had  so  many  of  them  interested 
that  the  institute  rooms  were  taxed  to  con- 
tain them,  and,  through  it  all,  her  sweet  and 
lovable  disposition  made  friends  of  the  moth- 
ers, as  well  as  of  the  children,  and  an  influ- 
ence was  exercised  which  could  not  be  meas- 
ured. 

"  In  her  efforts  to  reach  the  women  and 
girls  in  the  mills,  she  was  ably  seconded  by 


A  Memorial  83 

what  she  would  wish  some  kind  soul  to  do 
for  our  boy  under  similar  circumstances. 
And  so  she  came  to  us  and  was  a  blessing  to 
us  from  the  day  she  first  crossed  the  thres- 
hold. 

"  The  Girls'  Institute,  as  the  organization 
was  known,  which  had  been  formed  for  wel- 
fare work  among  the  women  and  girls  em- 
ployed in  the  Ludlow  mills,  had  a  nucleus  of 
active  members  and  a  board  of  directors 
drawn  from  among  the  employees  and  rep- 
resentative of  the  various  nationalities,  there 
being  amongst  them  natives  of  England,  Ire- 
land, Scotland  and  Canada,  and  they  were 
equally  mixed  in  creed,  some  being  Catholics, 
some  Episcopalians,  some  Presbyterians, 
some  Congregationalists,  and  so  on,  and  to 
avoid  any  possible  cause  of  offense  or  fric- 
tion, the  welfare  work  was  necessarily  con- 
ducted on  strictly  secular  lines. 

"  From  the  beginning  she  set  herself  to 
bridge  a  chasm  which  seemed  to  have  formed 
between  the  active  members  of  the  institute 
and  women  of  the  community  outside  of  the 
mills  who  assumed  a  critical  attitude  towards 
the  work  of  the  institute  and  even  questioned 
whether  the  girls  were  worth  what  was  being 


84  Alice  Jackson 

done  for  them,  and  she  succeeded,  to  some 
degree,  in  her  efforts  to  bring  about  more 
cordial  relations. 

"  On  her  first  coming,  the  active  members 
of  the  institute,  having  in  mind  previous  un- 
pleasant experiences,  were  a  little  shy  in  their 
acceptance  of  her  good  offices,  but  it  needed 
only  a  few  weeks'  intercourse  with  her  to 
make  every  one  of  them — without  exception 
— her  devoted  friends,  and  proud  to  be  so. 

"  She  made  arrangements  for  the  resump- 
tion of  evening  cooking  classes  for  the  mill 
employees,  securing  as  a  director  for  them, 
Miss  Florence  Lilly,  a  former  college  friend, 
who  was  a  resident  of  a  neighbouring  city. 

"  Then  she  threw  herself  into  the  work  of 
getting  hold  of  the  young  people  in  after- 
noon and  evening  sewing  and  other  classes 
and  soon  had  so  many  of  them  interested 
that  the  institute  rooms  were  taxed  to  con- 
tain them,  and,  through  it  all,  her  sweet  and 
lovable  disposition  made  friends  of  the  moth- 
ers, as  well  as  of  the  children,  and  an  influ- 
ence was  exercised  which  could  not  be  meas- 
ured. 

"  In  her  efforts  to  reach  the  women  and 
girls  in  the  mills,  she  was  ably  seconded  by 


A  Memorial  85 

the  directors  of  the  institute,  and  finding 
that  some  of  the  employees  who  lived  at  a 
distance  from  the  mills  brought  their  dinners 
with  them,  or  had  them  brought  to  them,  she 
had  the  lower  floor  of  the  institute  fitted 
with  furniture  and  opened  it  as  a  dining- 
room,  where  the  female  employees  could 
have  their  dinners  in  comfort.  Not  content 
with  this,  she  prepared  tea  and  coffee,  and 
simple  soups  for  them,  at  a  practically  nom- 
inal cost,  so  that  they  might  not  be  confined 
to  cold  dinners.  The  idea  met  with  a  fair 
response  for  a  time,  but,  strange  as  it  may 
seem,  the  most  of  those  who  did  not  go 
home  to  dinner  felt  so  reasonably  comfort- 
able in  their  workrooms  that  they  hated  to 
go  to  the  trouble  of  leaving  them,  even  for 
the  short  distance  to  the  institute,  which  was 
quite  close  to  the  mills ;  so  eventually  the  ex- 
periment was  abandoned. 

"  In  her  work  with  women  and  girls  in  the 
evening  she  was  ably  assisted  by  a  very  ef- 
ficient physical  director,  who  had  been  giving 
the  girls  instruction  in  this  line,  as  well  as  in 
reading  and  dramatics,  for  several  years,  and 
who,  by  her  patient  and  tactful  manner,  had 
really  been  the  means  of  holding  the  girls 


86  Alice  Jackson 

together  in  the  work,  and  was,  naturally,  a 
very  great  favourite  with  them,  and  the  cor- 
dial and  harmonious  relations  which  were 
established  between  their  two  leaders,  and 
the  entire  absence  of  anything  like  jealousy 
between  them,  were  a  source  of  great  satisfac- 
tion to  the  members  of  the  institute  and  of 
great  benefit  to  the  welfare  work  in  which 
they  were  all  interested,  creating  bonds  of 
practical  sympathy,  and  spreading  most 
beneficent  influence  over  all  who  came  in 
touch  with  the  work. 

"  The  winter,  spring  and  summer  passed 
all  too  rapidly  away,  and,  in  addition  to  ful- 
filling her  duties  as  social  secretary,  she  gave 
much  of  her  spare  time  to  purely  religious 
work  in  connection  with  the  missionary  so- 
cieties of  churches  here  and  in  other  towns 
which  she  visited  from  time  to  time. 

"  In  her  ministrations  among  the  families 
of  the  employees,  she  was  particularly  suc- 
cessful in  securing  and  retaining  their  affec- 
tion, and  though  the  working  conditions 
were  such  that  there  was  no  excuse  for  want 
among  any  of  them,  such  occasional  cases  of 
need  through  sickness  or  improper  use  of 
their  means  as  came  within  her  observation 


A  Memorial  87 

were  relieved  in  such  an  unobtrusive  and 
kindly  way  that  much  real  good  was  ac- 
complished. 

"  To  some  of  the  girls  who  spoke  only 
French,  or  Polish,  she  gave  lessons  in  Eng- 
lish, and  she  applied  her  knowledge  of 
French  to  giving  instruction  in  it  to  English- 
speaking  girls  who  desired  to  learn  French. 

"  She  never  seemed  to  have  an  idle  mo- 
ment and  had  frequently  to  be  almost  com- 
pelled by  friends  to  take  needed  rest.  If  she 
were  not  engaged  with  clubs  or  classes  of 
some  kind,  she  would  be  writing  cheerful 
and  encouraging  letters  to  former  friends,  or 
sewing  or  embroidering  something  which,  on 
inquiry,  would  be  found  to  be  for  the  benefit 
of  some  one  else  less  fortunate  than  she 
thought  herself;  indeed  her  whole  energy 
seemed  to  be  concentrated  on  doing  as  much 
good  as  was  possible  with  what  she  realized 
was  likely  to  be  the  short  span  of  life  allotted 
to  her,  and  yet  all  this  time  she  was  making 
a  brave  fight  for  what  was  left  of  it,  making 
frequent  trips  to  her  medical  adviser  in  New 
York,  who  finally,  to  our  great  sorrow,  in- 
sisted that  she  give  up  her  work  here  and 
return  to  her  home  in  New  Jersey,  that  she 


88  Alice  Jackson 

might  be  more  closely  under  his  obser- 
vation. 

"  As  one  of  the  directors  of  the  Girls'  In- 
stitute has  ably  expressed  it,  to  meet  and 
speak  and  work  with  her  was  to  be  lifted  out 
of  one's  self  and  to  go  from  her  presence 
feeling  ashamed  of  how  little  goodness  one 
had." 

Some  of  her  letters  from  Ludlow  to  the 
friend  to  whom  she  had  written  the  letter 
from  Diamond  Pond  reveal  her  sympathies, 
and  the  last  one  explains  her  plan  for  the 
following  year  : 

"  Indeed,  I  do  not  think  you  a  '  chronic 
grumbler,'  but  a  brave,  plucky  girl,  and 
one  whom  I  love  very  dearly,  and  who 
I  like  to  feel  will  write  to  me  often  and 
especially  on  the  darker  days,  when  every- 
thing does  not  seem  bright.  Poor  little 
girl,  I  hate  to  think  that  you  suffer.  It  is 
hard  to  work  when  one  does  not  feel  well. 
I  am  going  to  write  to  one  or  two  of  my 
friends  in  Chicago,  who  may  know  of  a  posi- 
tion which  would  not  require  so  much  phys- 
ical labour. 

"  I  often  think  of  you,  dear,  and  it  is  a 
very  real  joy,  that  you  will  write  to  me  about 


A  Memorial  89 

yourself.  I  myself  am  better,  and  am  enjoy- 
ing my  work  here  among  the  factory  girls  so 
much.  We  have  learned  to  know  and  love 
one  another  and  they  are  very  real  friends  to 
me. 

"  I  received  such  a  beautiful  letter  from 
Father  Gallen  a  short  time  ago,  and  he  sent 
me  as  a  New  Year's  gift  a  manual  and 
prayer-book  of  the  Catholic  Church. 

"  With  very  much  love  for  the  dear  little 
friend  whose  courage  is  a  great  help  to  me 
and  whose  love  a  deep  joy,  believe  me,  etc." 

"  I  am  thinking  of  you  constantly  though, 
dear,  and  I  think  soon  that  we  will  be  able 
to  find  just  the  right  thing  for  you.  .  .  . 

"  Do  not  grow  discouraged,  dear.  It  is 
hard  when  you  are  ill  and  tired,  but  I  believe 
that  brighter  days  are  coming.  .  .  . 

"  You  know  I  shall  always  be  glad  to  help 
you  in  any  possible  way.  I  have  other 
plans,  too,  and  will  write  you  later  about 
them." 

"  I  am  so  glad  about  the  operation  and  de- 
lighted that  it  was  so  successful.  Now  I  am 
sure  you  will  be  much  stronger  and  better. 


90  Alice  Jackson 

Do  not  be  distressed  if  you  have  to  rest  for 
some  weeks  before  beginning  work,  and 
when  you  feel  able  to  do  so,  will  you  send 
me  word  how  long  the  doctor  would  like  to 
have  you  stay  in  the  hospital  ?  It  is  hard,  I 
know,  to  be  sick,  and  the  days  must  be  very 
long  and  lonely.  I  have  been  sick  myself, 
so  I  know  what  it  feels  like." 

"  How  sorry  I  am  that  you  are  having  so 
much  pain.  The  rest  will  do  you  good, 
dear,  if  there  is  any  rest  when  you  are  suffer- 
ing. Stay  in  the  hospital  just  as  long  as  you 
can,  and  when  the  doctor  thinks  that  you  are 
well  enough  to  come  out,  send  me  word.  .  . 

"  Last  Monday  I  spent  in  Boston,  seeing 
some  of  the  different  forms  of  settlement 
work  that  they  are  carrying  on  there.  I  was 
very  much  impressed  with  the  fact  that  that 
'  slum  district '  as  I  suppose  it  would  be 
called  (though  I  hate  the  term)  is  very  su- 
perior to  that  of  New  York. 

"  The  apple  blossoms  and  the  lilies  and 
violets  are  all  out  now." 

"  You  are  such  a  brave  child  and  I  admire 
you  more  than  I  can  tell  you  for  your  cour- 


A  Memorial  91 

age.  We  will  all  try  to  think  of  just  the 
best  thing  for  you.  At  present  I  think  you 
had  better  stay  in  the  hospital  just  as  long  as 
you  can.  You  are  so  absolutely  sure  there 
of  the  very  best  treatment.  And  that  is  so 
important  just  now.  We  do  so  hope,  that 
you  will  be  finally  cured.  It  is  hard  to  be  in 
the  hospital,  dear  child,  when  you  are  so 
anxious  to  be  at  work,  but  it  may  mean  that 
you  will  be  quite  well  some  time  soon.  I  am 
going  to  write  to  one  of  my  friends  in 
Chicago,  who  will  be  so  glad  to  come  to  see 
you,  if  she  is  at  home.  I  have  had  a  busy 
summer  so  far.  I  came  home  on  the  fourth 
of  July  and  since  that  time  have  been  to 
Northfield  and  to  Atlantic  City  to  confer- 
ences. Since  I  came  home  again  I  have  had 
a  good  many  guests  and  have  also  been  busy 
getting  a  class  history  ready  for  print.  I 
may  possibly  go  to  the  White  Mountains  for 
a  week  or  two  before  I  go  back  to  Ludlow. 
I  am  going  there  for  one  month  only  as  my 
doctor  wishes  me  to  be  in  New  York  next 
winter.  I  am  going  to  be  there  to  try  to 
start  clubs  in  some  of  the  factories  and  pos- 
sibly in  some  of  the  apartment  stores." 
She  went  to  Northfield  again  this  summer, 


92  Alice  Jackson 

but  not  to  Silver  Bay,  and  then  back  to  Lud- 
low  for  a  month.  The  following  letters  were 
written  in  September,  1905  : 

"  Your  life  is  such  a  strong,  helpful  one. 
That  means  suffering,  for  in  such  a  real  way 
you  do  carry  the  burdens  of  others." 

"  Death  is  just  the  going  on  into  a  life  of 
fuller  love  and  of  fuller  service.  I  have 
thought  of  death  so  often  the  last  few  weeks, 
and  more  and  more  it  has  seemed  to  me  to 
be  just  the  falling  asleep,  to  awaken  to  see 
Christ's  smile  and  to  more  really  feel  His 
touch.  And  there  with  Him  one  will  feel 
no  sadness,  for  looking  ori  those  whom  they 
love,  who  are  suffering  so,  they  will  see  that 
God's  arms  are  about  them,  and  that  out  of 
the  deepness  of  the  sorrow,  He  is  bringing 
peace.  ...  I  know  how  your  heart  aches, 
— how  deep  it  goes,  and  what  a  long,  long, 
weary  way  you  must  walk,  before  you  can 
join  the  one  who  will  always  be  your  nearest 
and  your  dearest  one.  But  I  know  that  God 
is  going  to  help." 

"  She  always  attributed  to  others  the  quali- 
ties which  her  own  life  abounded  in,"  wrote 
the  one  to  whom  this  last  letter  was  written. 


A  Memorial  93 

"  Her  belief  in  me  made  me,  I  know,  strive 
for  higher  and  better  and  nobler  things.  .  .  . 
I  know  that  I  have  done  a  great  deal  because 
she  expected  me  to  do  it,  and  one  could  not 
show  a  selfish  side  to  one  who  was  abso- 
lutely selfless.  She  had  that  rare  quality  of 
getting  others  to  work  and  to  work  gladly." 


VIII 

IN  INDUSTRIAL  WORK  IN  NEW 
YORK  CITY 

IN  the  late  fall  she  returned  to  New 
York  to  be  under  the  doctor's  closer 
care,  but  all  the  while  to  be  busily  at 
work  also  as  industrial  secretary  for  the  New 
York  City  Young  Woman's  Christian  Asso- 
ciation. The  work  was  among  the  girls  in 
the  factories  in  New  York  City  and  was  car- 
ried on  under  the  supervision  of  a  little  com- 
mittee, but  Alice  was  left  free  to  develop  the 
work  in  accordance  with  her  own  ideas,  the 
aim  being  to  improve  the  condition  of  the 
girls  but  more  especially  to  improve  the  girls 
themselves  by  winning  them  to  the  Lord 
Jesus  Christ. 

Miss  Louise  S.  Holmquist,  who  had  charge 
throughout  the  state  of  the  work  which  Alice 
Jackson  was  doing  in  New  York  City, 
writes : 

"  In  every  factory  where  she  went  her 
name  is  all  that  is  necessary  to  give  us  a 
warm  welcome  as  her  friends.  She  went 
94 


A  Memorial  95 

regularly  to  three  or  four  factories  and  had 
an  evening  club  where  there  were  girls  from 
many  of  the  industrial  establishments  on  the 
West  Side  between  42d  and  59th  Streets. 
Her  coming  at  the  noon  hour  was  always 
greeted  with  great  happiness  and  she  had  a 
peculiar  ability  in  winning  the  friendship  of 
individual  girls  and  women  throughout  the 
mills.  It  was  especially  wonderful  to  see 
how  she  entered  into  the  life  of  those  who 
were  suffering  from  any  need,  and  her  work 
in  the  factories  was  only  the  smallest  part  of 
what  she  was  able  to  do.  She  visited  in  the 
homes  and  hospitals  and  helped  many  a 
family  to  solve  difficult  problems.  Until  she 
left  us  she  wrote  faithfully  to  many  of  the 
girls  whom  she  knew  even  slightly,  and  her 
letters  were  always  messengers  of  hope  and 
courage  to  those  who  received  them. 

"  Her  work,  of  course,  covered  the  four 
sides  of  their  lives  as  she  was  careful  to  plan 
for  their  social,  physical,  intellectual  and  spir- 
itual needs.  In  the  summer  she  spent  the 
hot  days  in  planning  outings  and  every  one 
who  knew  her  felt  that  she  was  giving  her 
very  life  to  these  girls  who  loved  her  and 
needed  her  so  sorely." 


96  Alice  Jackson 

She  taught  on  Sundays  a  class  in  the  Sun- 
day-school of  the  Fifth  Avenue  Presbyterian 
Church,  and,  of  course,  kept  in  close  touch 
with  the  work  at  Christodora  House.  She 
was  at  this  time  chairman  of  the  Membership 
Committee  of  the  Women's  University  Club. 
She  was  always  eager  for  all  kinds  of  service, 
subsidiary  to  whatever  was  her  main  respon- 
sibility, and  being  in  New  York,  beside  keep- 
ing her  near  her  doctor  and  giving  her  a 
great  main  task  in  the  factories,  also  gave  her 
the  ample  opportunities  in  which  she  always 
rejoiced  for  many  forms  of  personal  service. 
She  gave  no  little  service  to  Miss  Grace 
Dodge  in  her  work  for  city  girls.  "  She 
once  remarked  to  me,"  writes  one  of  her  sis- 
ters, "  that  Daniels  was  the  only  shop  in  New 
York  in  which  she  did  not  know  some  of  the 
saleswomen,  and  on  going  there  was  imme- 
diately addressed  as  a  friend  by  one  of  them. 
Alice  felt  very  strongly  that  to  her  had 
been  given  the  enthusiasm  and  ability  to 
organize  and  carry  on  work  in  its  early 
stages,  work  that  could  be  well  carried  on 
by  others  when  it  was  once  well  established. 
To  this  conviction  and  also  in  some  measure 
to  her  health  were  due  the  frequent  changes 


A  Memorial  97 

in  her  work.  She  kept  up  with  friends  made 
and  letter-writing  was  a  large  part  of  her 
daily  work.  She  kept  year  by  year  a  daily 
record  of  those  to  whom  she  had  written  per- 
sonal letters.  She  always  felt  that  the  value 
of  her  work  lay  in  her  personal  intercourse 
with  others  as  contrasted  with  the  service  of 
those  who  work  for  causes  rather  than  indi- 
viduals." 

The  summer  of  1906  Alice  spent  in  good 
part  at  home  in  Englewood,  where  she  found 
special  ways  of  giving  loving  help  to  friends 
in  need.  She  attended  the  Young  Women's 
Conference  at  Northfield  in  July  and  wrote  a 
careful  summary  of  Deaconess  Knapp's  work 
in  her  Mission  Study  Class  on  Comparative 
Religion  for  the  September  number  of  the 
Record  of  Christian  Work.  In  August  she 
wrote  her  last  letter  to  the  friend  who  had 
dropped  out  of  college : 

"  This  summer  I  was  at  Northfield  for  two 
weeks,  and  next  week  am  either  going  to 
Maine  or  to  the  St.  Lawrence,  and  then  am 
hoping  to  visit  Margaret  Bridges.  I  wonder  if 
you  will  remember  her.  Her  sister  died  very 
suddenly  this  summer. 

"  I  cannot  help  hoping  that  you  will  not 


98  Alice  Jackson 

go  to  work  too  soon.  It  is  such  a  tempta- 
tion to  begin  before  one  really  has  one's  full 
strength,  and  you  must  not  lose  what  you 
have  gained  in  that  way.  I  myself  am  so 
much  better  now." 


IN  COLLEGE  DAYS 


IX 

AT  DANA  HALL 

IN   the  autumn  she  went  to  Wellesley, 
with  the  doctor's  consent,  to  teach  the 
Bible  and  to  work  among  the  girls  in 
Miss  Cooke's  School,  Dana  Hall.     She  found 
opportunities,  of  course,  for  meeting,  also,  the 
young  women  in  the  college.     One  of  the 
college  professors  writes : 

"  My  own  acquaintance  with  her  was 
slight,  but  I  have  rarely  been  so  impressed 
by  any  one  whom  I  really  knew  so  little. 
Every  time  she  came  to  our  house  I  used  to 
say :  '  What  a  beautiful  winning  girl  Alice 
Jackson  is.'  ...  I  noticed  her  ease  in  meet- 
ing the  girls,  and  how  she  drew  them  un- 
consciously into  earnest  conversation  and 
held  them  by  her  own  gentle  earnestness.  I 
could  readily  understand  that  she  had  the 
gift  of  power  over  people,  a  power  that 
radiated  from  her  own  lovely  unselfish  spirit. 
...  To  me  it  seems  remarkable  that  she 
should  have  given  so  definite  and  true  an  im- 
99 


ioo  Alice  Jackson 

pression  to  one  almost  a  stranger,  definite 
and  true  and  direct  as  light.  .  .  .  Such  souls, 
like  their  Master,  bring  life  and  immortality 
to  light." 

Her  last  work  was  the  work  in  Dana  Hall. 
Letters  from  two  of  the  girls  there  will  best 
describe  what  her  influence  was : 

"  I  loved  her  very  much,  and  I  realize 
more  and  more  all  the  time  how  great  a 
privilege  it  was  to  know  her  as  I  did, — but 
thoughts  are  sometimes  hard  to  express ! 
Miss  Jackson  was  not  here  with  us  long,  only 
from  September  until  December,  but  in  that 
short  time  she  won  the  love  and  friend- 
ship of  all  who  knew  her.  I  think  every 
one  felt  that  she  was  their  friend,  even 
though  they  did  not  know  her  personally. 
She  was  always  bright  and  cheerful  when- 
ever you  met  her,  always  ready  with  a  smile 
and  a  helpful  word  or  act.  But  to  the  girls 
who  seemed  lonely  or  unhappy,  she  was 
kindest  of  all.  She  knew  that  schoolgirls 
miss  '  home  '  and  she  used  to  take  them  home 
with  her  in  the  afternoon  and  read  or  talk  to 
them  in  her  loving  way.  She  always  saw 
the  good  side  in  people  and  in  life  herself,  so 
she  could  show  it  to  us  too.  Some  of  my 


A  Memorial'  101 

happiest  hours  last  year  were  spent  with 'her 
in  that  way. 

"  Miss  Jackson  had  our  Junior  Bible  Class. 
Sometimes  the  girls  do  not  care  much  for 
Bible  Class.  They  think  it  is  too  much  like 
an  English  recitation  or  any  other  class. 
But  it  was  not  so  that  year.  Miss  Jackson 
gave  the  class  her  own  spirit, — she  made  it 
*  an  hour  of  prayer.'  The  girls  grew  thor- 
oughly interested  and  earnest.  We  were  glad 
to  work  for  her,  and  yet  she  always  did  most 
for  us,  and  we  appreciated  that.  On  the 
morning  of  her  death  that  class  was  called  as 
usual.  We  were  told  what  had  happened 
and  were  dismissed.  The  silence  in  the  room 
and  the  sorrow  on  the  girls'  faces  spoke  what 
was  in  each  one's  heart.  They  had  each  lost 
a  friend.  I  think  after  all  a  few  words  of  her 
own  will  speak  for  the  rest.  She  led  our 
prayer-meeting  one  Wednesday  evening,  and 
she  took  her  text  from  the  fifteenth  chapter  of 
John,  the  eleventh  verse.  She  called  it  the 
'  Joy  of  Discipleship/  and  that  seemed  to  me 
her  whole  life.  She  talked  to  us  of  the  deep 
and  abiding  joy  of  being  a  disciple  of  Christ, 
of  loving  and  serving  Him.  I  knew  that  she 
loved  and  served  Him,  and  that  she  served 


10*2  Alice  Jackson 

.those  aioumUrer,rtoo,  for  His  sake,  for  I  had 
experienced  it.  Surely,  too,  it  was  an  act,  or 
many  acts,  of  service  and  love  to  keep  up  a 
correspondence  with  two  hundred  and  fifty 
people,  as  she  once  told  me  she  did." 

"Although  Miss  Jackson  was  at  Dana 
Hall  such  a  short  time,  her  influence  was  felt 
by  each  of  the  two  hundred  girls.  I  do  not 
think  that  there  has  ever  been  another  teacher 
in  the  school  whose  personality  made  itself 
more  felt,  in  fun  as  well  as  in  the  more  seri- 
ous things.  In  games  of  basket-ball  she  was 
referee,  she  took  an  active  part  in  the  sale 
held  before  Christmas,  she  was  deeply  inter- 
ested in  getting  up  a  school  paper,  she  had  a 
Bible  class,  and  of  course  she  was  a  great  in- 
spiration in  the  Christian  Association.  She 
was  interested  in  everything  that  happened 
in  the  school, — elections,  plays,  athletics,  in 
fact  when  we  talked  with  her  we  felt  as  if  she 
were  one  of  us,  liking  the  same  things  and 
having  the  same  interests.  In  everything 
and  everywhere,  she  showed  the  same  beauti- 
ful Christ  spirit  that  made  her  the  ideal  of 
some  of  us. 

"  We  always  had  a  standing  invitation  to 


A  Memorial  103 

take  afternoon  tea  with  her,  and  it  was  a  treat 
indeed  to  go,  and  in  the  twilight  gather  around 
the  little  table  and  listen  to  her  experiences, 
— both  at  college  and  in  New  York.  One 
night  she  invited  me  to  supper,  and  after 
talking  about  college  and  the  girls  one  meets 
there,  the  conversation  drifted  to  the  difficulty 
of  a  girl  who  is  not  rich  being  with  those 
who  are,  and  always  having  to  accept  fa- 
vours, and  never  being  able  to  return  them. 
I  think  I  received  a  better  insight  into  her 
character  than  ever  before,  how  she  associated 
with  rich  and  poor  alike,  had  the  difficult 
task  of  accepting  for  herself,  as  well  as  that 
of  inducing  others  to  accept  from  her,  and 
what  tact  and  keen  knowledge  of  human  na- 
ture she  possessed  in  order  to  successfully 
accomplish  her  ends.  I  love  to  think  of  her 
as  I  left  her  that  night,  standing  in  the  door- 
way with  the  moon  shining  full  on  her,  and 
her  glorious  hair  making  a  halo  around  her 
face. 

"  She  was  always  thinking  of  others  and  try- 
ing to  do  kind  little  things  to  make  some  one 
happy.  The  night  of  the  Christmas  sale  she 
had  some  brass  articles  to  sell,  and  among 
them  were  some  little  candlesticks,  one  of 


IO4  Alice  Jackson 

which  I  purchased.  After  the  sale  was  over 
she  came  up  to  me  and  gave  me  the  mate  to 
my  candlestick,  saying  that  it  had  not  been 
sold  and  she  wanted  me  to  have  it.  Then 
again  we  were  talking  about  Bible  study,  and 
I  happened  to  say  that  my  Bible  had  been 
destroyed  and  that  consequently  I  was  with- 
out one.  Immediately,  as  if  she  were  asking 
the  greatest  favour,  she  asked  if  she  might 
give  me  another.  Every  day  showed  fresh 
proofs  of  her  generosity,  charity,  her  love  for 
every  one,  and  the  girls  overlooked  by  others 
were  sure  to  be  singled  out  for  kindness  by 
Miss  Jackson." 

Miss  Cooke  herself  writes  : 

"  She  entered  our  home  to  accept  what 
seemed  a  slight  position,  but  we  soon  recog- 
nized her  as  a  distinct  power  for  good  in  our 
school.  The  Bible  work  took  on  a  new  in- 
terest. She  evidently  spent  numberless  hours 
of  the  most  careful  preparation  for  her  weekly 
lesson,  and  her  pupils  often  told  me  that 
they  could  not  imagine  studying  the  New 
Testament  under  a  more  inspiring  teacher. 

"  Her  relation  with  all  the  girls  was  one  of 
unusually  loving  and  helpful  friendship,  and 
her  own  home  was  constantly  opened  to  them 


A  Memorial  105 

in  a  way  that  they  greatly  appreciated.  Miss 
Jackson  came  to  us  in  the  autumn,  and  as  the 
Christmas  season  approached  I  found  myself 
giving  frequent  permissions  to  the  girls  to 
visit  her  in  the  little  home  on  the  other  side 
of  the  town.  Sometimes  it  was  to  learn  to 
make  some  pretty  gift  for  the  coming  holi- 
day, sometimes  to  return  a  book  or  to  bor- 
row one,  and  sometimes  just  to  drink  a  cup 
of  afternoon  tea.  In  such  ways  she  drew  the 
girls  very  near  to  her,  and  having  their  in- 
terest and  confidence  found  many  opportu- 
nities to  guide  and  strengthen  their  higher 
life. 

"  As  for  myself,  I  felt  her  friendship  and 
earnest  assistance  from  the  beginning.  On 
one  occasion  I  brought  to  her  a  problem  of 
school  life  which  I  felt  might  be  solved  by 
her  wider  experience  in  Christian  Association 
work.  She  asked  for  a  little  time  to  think  it 
over,  and  in  a  day  or  two  brought  me  a  paper 
most  carefully  written  containing  an  inter- 
esting, helpful,  and  exhaustive  discussion  of 
the  whole  question  with  her  own  positive 
opinion  regarding  it.  This  unusual  interest, 
with  the  most  careful  thought  and  study, 
seems  to  me  one  of  the  most  pronounced 


io6  Alice  Jackson 

characteristics  of  her  teaching.  Above  all, 
the  reality  of  her  vision  of  Christ,  and  the 
beautifully  practical  way  in  which  she  lived 
the  life  of  her  Master  among  us,  won  and 
held  her  pupils  and  her  friends  in  unusual 
loyalty.  Her  withdrawal  from  Dana  Hall 
brought  a  deeper  sense  of  loss  than  the  school 
has  ever  sustained.  Even  yet  we  do  not  talk 
very  much  about  Miss  Jackson,  though  she 
lives  in  a  very  vital  way  in  our  hearts.  We 
are  deeply  grateful  for  the  vision  of  this  truly 
consecrated  and  womanly  life,  and  for  the 
close  association  for  a  brief  season  with  one 
who,  while  on  earth, '  tossed  her  arms  among 
the  stars/  " 


X 

THE  END  WHICH  IS  THE  BEGINNING 

IN  December  what  the  doctor  had  long 
anticipated  came.  The  disease  which 
she  had  courageously  fought,  to  which 
she  had  never  for  one  moment  surrendered^ 
closed  in  inexorably.  Her  one  thought,  as 
always,  was  of  others.  "  Don't  let  mother 
know  I  have  any  pain,"  was  her  entreaty. 
"  Don't  let  mother  be  sad."  She  did  not 
realize  the  danger  of  her  last  illness,  but 
thought  she  was  suffering  from  some  local 
trouble  which  would  yield  to  treatment  in  a 
few  weeks.  This  she  thought  would  upset 
the  plans  for  the  family  reunion  at  Christmas, 
so  she  begged  the  two  sisters  with  whom  and 
her  mother  she  made  her  home  in  Wellesley, 
to  arrange  that  she  be  placed  in  the  hospital 
so  that  they  could  go  to  Englewood  without 
her.  She  never  quite  understood  that  she 
was  the  centre  of  the  family  love  and  care, 
and  that  to  leave  her  would  have  been  impos- 
sible, even  if  her  recovery  had  been  certain, 
107 


io8  Alice  Jackson 

but  her  thought,  as  always,  was  for  others, 
and  not  for  herself.  Her  suffering  was  not 
for  many  days,  and  on  December  i$th  she 
entered  into  the  great  light  for  which  she  had 
longed,  and  saw  in  His  beauty  the  King  she 
had  ever  loved  and  served. 

Her  death  was  felt  at  once  by  hundreds 
who  had  known  her,  as  a  great  personal  loss, 
but  also  as  a  great  personal  gain  and  as  a  new 
and  irrefutable  proof  of  life's  unendingness. 
Testimonies  of  what  she  had  been  and  done 
came  from  every  quarter,  from  rich  and  poor, 
from  near  and  far.  Those  who  had  known 
her  in  college  wrote : 

"  How  many  times  I  left  my  restless  long- 
ings in  her  care  and  tried  again." 

"  To  me  it  was  especially  remarkable  the 
way  in  which  she  appealed  to  and  reached 
girls  of  all  types, — the  religious,  the  worldly, 
and  the  indifferent  girls  all  loved  her  and 
were  her  friends. 

"  I  never  knew  a  person  who  could  always 
find  the  best  in  every  one  as  she  could.  If 
anything  was  ever  said  against  another  per- 
son, Alice  was  always  ready  to  find  the  best 
qualities  in  that  person." 

"  It  was  the  first  year  since  college  that  I 


A  Memorial  109 

had  had  no  Christmas  letter  from  Ajax. 
...  I  don't  believe  you  can  read  this,  for  I 
can  scarcely  see  as  I  write,  for  though  you 
say  she  would  not  have  us  grieve,  how  can 
we  help  it?" 

"  The  beauty  of  Alice's  spirit, — her  gen- 
tleness, her  marvellous  generosity  of  under- 
standing and  sympathy,  her  great  big  love 
of  people.  Never  have  I  known  any  one 
with  greater  and  more  unconditional  unsel- 
fishness." 

"  Every  picture  of  Alice  which  comes 
across  my  mind  is  one  in  which  she  was  doing 
something  for  some  one  else,  that  other  peo- 
ple knew  nothing  about.  I  simply  can't 
count  the  number  of  things  she  has  done  for 
me,  but  as  I  wrote  her  a  month  or  so  ago, 
she  came  nearest  my  ideal  of  a  saint  of  any 
one  in  all  the  world." 

"  Did  any  one  ever  live  so  near  Him  as 
she  did,  or  was  any  saint  of  old  more  ready 
to  go?" 

"  If  ever  a  girl  was  bent  on  making  life 
count  to  the  utmost  for  manifesting  the  life 
and  the  love  of  the  Lord  Christ  to  every  one 
she  could  touch,  that  was  Alice." 

"  It  seems  to  me  that  any  one  so  good  and 


no  Alice  Jackson 

helpful  to  every  one  who  knew  her  as  Ajax 
was,  is  surely  more  needed  here  than  in 
heaven.  Poor  old  '98  !  We  all  loved  her  so 
much,  and  I  can't  think  what  a  reunion  or 
anything  else  will  be  like  without  her." 

"  This  sorrow  is  shared  by  innumerable 
others  whose  lives  Alice  has  touched.  The 
whole  class  of  '98  will  feel  her  death  keenly, 
for  she,  and  she  alone,  made  the  effort  to 
keep  us  in  touch  with  one  another. 

"  How  full  to  the  brim  her  life  was  !  She 
accomplished  more  than  many  who  live  twice 
as  long.  It  seems  wonderful  that  she  could 
so  work  up  to  the  very  end." 

A  doctor  in  Northampton,  who  also  was 
her  personal  friend,  wrote  : 

"  Although  I  have  known  for  some  years 
that  dear  Alice  might  any  day  be  taken  from 
us, — still,  she  was  always  so  oblivious  of  self 
in  and  for  others  that  it  was  not  easy  to  be- 
lieve that  the  poor  timid  child  could  ever  fall 
asleep  in  just  that  way. 

"  Dear  Alice, — the  most  unselfish  person 
I've  ever  known,  and  among  the  few  per- 
fectly winsome  ones !  I  can't  imagine  any 
one  who  could  leave  so  many  friends  to  miss 
her,  and  yet  to  be  happy  because  she  has 


A  Memorial  in 

taught  them  some  of  the  secret  of  her  own 
unselfishness." 

Professor  Irving  Wood  wrote : 

"  She  was  so  full  of  abounding  energy  that 
one  can  hardly  imagine  her  as  having  stopped 
her  labour.  I  never  have  known  a  person  of 
more  tremendous  and  more  unselfish  activity. 
You  know  what  she  has  been  at  Smith  Col- 
lege, but  I  want  to  say  it  that  those  who  do 
not  know  us  so  well  as  you  do  may  realize 
that  we  shall  value  very  highly  her  memory. 
She  has  written  her  name  in  a  very  sacred 
place  on  the  hearts  of  hundreds  of  both  stu- 
dents and  faculty, — of  hundreds  that  in  the 
total  become  thousands.  She  has  helped  us 
to  be  better,  and  the  world  is  poorer  for  us 
without  the  thought  of  her  in  it.  She  has 
shown  a  great  many  of  these  young  people 
what  religion  is,  and  how  it  can  rule  a  busy, 
happy,  free  life.  She  has  shown  us  all  how 
a  person  may  carry  a  bright  face  with  a 
heart  that  must  often  have  been  sad  and 
troubled.  Never  but  once  did  she  open  up 
to  me  the  side  of  sorrow,  and  then  she  told 
me  of  mingled  joy  and  sadness,  with  entire 
emphasis  on  the  side  of  joy ;  and  that  was 
characteristic." 


112  Alice  Jackson 

"  The  memory  of  her  winsome  personality 
and  her  enthusiastic  self-denying  Christian 
life  will  long  be  cherished  by  all  who  knew 
her,"  wrote  President  Seelye.  Other  pro- 
fessors wrote : 

"  Alice  was  as  fine  an  example  of  devotion 
to  high  ideals  as  I  have  known.  She  will 
long  be  remembered  for  the  work  she  did 
here.  She  did  all  her  work  faithfully  and 
her  memory  will  be  revered." 

"  What  always  seemed  to  me  especially 
remarkable  was  that  she  never  seemed  iso- 
lated, in  the  least  out  of  sympathy  with  all 
sorts  of  people.  Alice  was  always  such  a 
wonderfully  good  companion." 

"  It  was  an  honour  to  be  her  teacher  for  a 
little  while,  and  later  she  was  with  us  at  Smith 
in  the  bloom  and  sweetness  of  her  young 
womanhood.  I  count  her  friendship  among 
the  treasures  of  my  life,  and  the  heavenly 
country  more  to  be  desired  now  that  her 
home  is  there,  and  I  think  she  is  not  far 
away." 

Many  to  whom  Alice's  letters  would  no 
more  come,  thought  naturally  first  of  their 
loss  and  how  they  could  go  on  without  the 
good  cheer  which  always  came  from  her. 


A  Memorial  113 

This  was  the  thought  of  many  of  her  Chris- 
todora  girls. 

"  Oh,  Mrs.  Jackson,"  wrote  one  of  them 
to  her  mother,  "  I  shall  miss  my  «  angel '  so 
much ;  what  she  has  been  to  me  and  what 
influence  her  dear  sweet  self  has  been  in  my 
life,  no  one  can  realize,  and  her  memory  and 
entire  self  shall  live  forever  in  my  life. 
Never,  never  shall  I  forget  her.  I  have 
grown  to  love  her  so  dearly  ever  since  I  first 
met  her  at  Christodora  House  about  nine 
years  ago,  and  she  has  taken  such  a  personal 
interest  in  me,  has  helped  me  in  so  many, 
many  ways,  and  I  have  looked  upon  her  as 
my  very  dearest  friend.  It  was  always  such 
pleasure  to  receive  her  letters,  and  hardly  a 
week  went  by  without  receiving  just  a  word 
or  thought. 

"  What  a  blessing  she  was  here  among  us 
all, — so  self-sacrificing,  never  thinking  of  her- 
self at  all,  but  always  for  others.  It  has  been 
quite  a  lesson. 

"  It  has  been  quite  a  privilege  to  have 
known  Miss  Alice,  and  she  shall  forever  be 
my  beautiful '  angel '  and  my  '  Guiding  Star ' 
through  life.  I  will  try  very  hard  not  to 
think  her  gone  away  forever." 


114  Alice  Jackson 

The  Mothers'  Club  at  Christodora  passed 
the  following  resolutions  of  sympathy 
with  those  who  were  nearest  to  Alice, 
and  the  secretary  of  the  club  transmitted 
them: 

"  Mrs.  Jackson  and  family  : 

"  At  the  last  meeting  of  the  Mothers' 
Club  of  Christodora  House,  the  members 
heard  with  deepest  concern  that  our 
heavenly  Father  had  called  to  her  eternal 
rest  your  lovely  daughter  and  sister. 

"  WHEREAS,  Most  of  us  knew  Miss  Jackson 
well  and  loved  her  not  only  for  her  gentle 
and  sunny  disposition,  but  had  also  become 
endeared  to  her  through  many  acts  of  kind- 
ness and  self-abnegation. 

"  WHEREAS,  We  are  indebted  to  her  as  the 
founder  of  this  club,  which  will  be  a  monu- 
ment to  her  insight  of  the  needs  of  the  neigh- 
bourhood, it  was 

"  Resolved,  That  we  extend  to  you  the 
heartfelt  sympathy  of  thirty  mothers,  many 
of  whom  have  been  called  upon  to  bear  sim- 
ilar losses  and  know  how  to  feel  and  pray  for 
others;  it  was  further 

"Resolved,  That  we  do  pray  that  the 
God  who  doeth  all  things  well,  will  show  the 


A  Memorial  115 

light  of  His  countenance  upon  you  and  give 
you  peace ;  and  it  was  further 

"  Resolved,  That  we  send  to  you  a  copy 
of  these  resolutions  and  that  the  same  be 
spread  upon  our  minutes." 

And  an  Italian  mission  worker  in  the  city 
wrote : 

"  You  do  not  need  to  have  me  tell  you 
what  an  influence  Miss  Alice  exerted  every- 
where she  went.  You  all  know  that, — and 
it  may  truly  be  said  of  her  that  though  she 
is  not  present  with  us  in  a  material  form,  she 
is  living  in  the  lives  of  many.  There  is  no 
greater  comfort  that  could  come  to  you 
than  the  knowledge  of  this  fact.  I  could 
not  help  speaking  concerning  her  and  her 
work  to  my  Italian  people  last  Sunday 
morning." 

For  all  these  classes  no  one  could  speak 
with  more  knowledge  and  sympathy  and  au- 
thority than  Miss  Grace  Dodge.  "  It  is  a 
pleasure,"  wrote  Miss  Dodge,  "  to  look  back 
upon  her  beautiful,  happy  life,  and  I  appre- 
ciate to  the  full  what  she  has  meant  to  so 
many  hundreds  of  girls.  They  will  all  grieve 
over  her  going  Home,  and  I  express  for  them 
all  my  deep  sympathy  in  your  loss." 


n6  Alice  Jackson 

Among  those  who  felt  keenly  Alice's 
going,  were  not  a  few  older  women  to  whom 
she  had  been  a  closer  and  more  helpful  in- 
fluence than  any  older  friends.  Three  of 
these  wrote : 

"  After  my  great  sorrow  came  to  me,  I  felt 
that  I  was  the  child  and  dear  Alice  the 
woman,  she  gave  me  so  much  comfort,  she 
wrote  me  such  beautiful  letters,  and  helped 
me  to  live  a  better  life  for  having  known 
her.  ...  I  have  lost  a  great  comforter. 
I  know,  of  course,  we  have  not  really 
lost  her.  Just  to  have  known  her  is  to  keep 
her  always." 

"  Alice  used  to  write  me  such  lovely  let- 
ters ;  she  wrote  me  just  before  she  was  taken 
ill,  and  in  the  letter  she  wrote  these  two  or 
three  lines : 

"  '  For  love's  strength  standeth  in  love's  sacrifice, 
And  he  who  suffers  most  has  most  to  give.' 

She  has  sent  me  these  lines  before  ;  she  was 
very,  very  fond  of  them." 

"  When  I  knew  her  but  slightly,  I  was  sur- 
prised to  find  myself  turning  to  her,  instead 
of  an  older  friend,  in  my  first  real  sorrow.  I 


A  Memorial  117 

have  never  ceased  to  be  thankful ;  for  the  im- 
pulse, the  strength,  comfort  and  wisdom  of 
her  loving  words  help  me  still." 

There  were  men  who  had  known  her  glory 
of  character  and  watched  her  heroic  struggle. 
One  wrote : 

"  Her  ability  to  bear  suffering  without  giv- 
ing the  slightest  manifestation  of  it,  seemed 
superhuman,  as  indeed  it  truly  was.  Her 
Christ  never  left  her. 

"  To  me  her  life  is  the  most  wonderful 
demonstration  of  what  Jesus  Christ  can  do 
with  a  person  when  He  has  absolute  right  of 
way,  that  I  have  ever  seen." 

And  another : 

"  If  there  is  greater  joy  and  larger  life  and 
a  sure  reward  for  any  of  us  human  beings  in 
the  next  life,  she  certainly  is  having  it  now. 
Indeed,  of  no  one  whom  I  know  that  has 
died  am  I  more  confident  than  of  her,  that 
she  is  living  still,  living  a  fuller  life  in  the 
companionship  of  the  Father  and  of  Jesus 
and  of  other  departed  ones.  Of  Miss  Alice 
Jackson  I  feel  more  confident  than  of  almost 
any  other  friend  whom  I  know,  that  over  and 
above  the  advantage  to  herself  in  having  en- 
tered the  heavenly  life,  her  actual  service  to 


1 1 8  Alice  Jackson 

this  world  has  not  finished,  but  that  she  will 
continue  to  do  much  for  those  here  whom  she 
loved,  perhaps  even  more.  You  and  her  other 
sisters  and  her  mother  and  her  friends  will 
come  to  know  more  of  what  she  already  ac- 
complished in  loving  service,  and  I  believe 
we  will  love  her  more  tenderly  and  actually 
be  helped  by  her  in  our  daily  life  more  ef- 
fectively than  ever  before.  Sad  as  it  is  to 
be  parted  from  her  and  for  the  world  to  be 
deprived  of  her  bodily  service,  I  know  of  no 
one,  it  seems  to  me,  for  whom  the  joy  and 
satisfaction  are  more  exceeding. 

"  To  me,  as  to  many  others,  she  has  been 
verily  a  Christ,  an  Appointed  One,  an 
Anointed  One,  revealing  the  Father,  inter- 
preting Jesus,  helping  to  the  divine  life 
through  the  Holy  Spirit. 

"  Her  service  has  by  no  means  ended.  In 
other  lives  made  more  Christlike  by  her  con- 
tact, she  is  still  living ;  through  them  her 
ministry  is  continuing." 

And  Dr.  Bovaird,  who  had  been  her  physi- 
cian and  friend  from  the  day  she  came  to 
him  for  examination  as  to  her  fitness  for  mis- 
sionary service,  writes  : 

"  I  can  hardly  express  my  opinion  without 


A  Memorial  119 

using  language  which  may,  to  those  who 
never  knew  her,  seem  extravagant.  How- 
ever, I  shall  make  the  trial. 

"  My  knowledge  of  her  dates  back  to  the 
time  when  defeated  in  the  desire  of  her 
heart  to  go  as  a  missionary  to  China,  she 
had  to  face  the  duty  of  going  on  with  her 
work  here  while  suffering  from  the  disease 
which  ultimately  brought  such  an  untimely 
end  to  her  life.  At  first  there  was  a  hope 
that  she  might  possibly  throw  off  her  trouble 
and  be  able,  in  the  end,  to  carry  out  her 
purposes,  but  as  time  went  on  with  very  little 
change  in  her  condition,  it  became  evident 
that  even  that  hope  was  vain.  Briefly  put, 
the  circumstances  under  which  I  came  to 
know  Alice  Jackson,  far  from  being  favour- 
able, were  such  as  would  test,  to  the  limit, 
the  character  and  will  of  any  one.  All  this 
is  said  only  to  make  it  clear  that  my  ap- 
preciation of  the  beauty  of  her  character 
did  not  take  its  colour  from  the  chance  in- 
fluence of  the  conditions  under  which  it  was 
developed. 

"  During  all  the  years  I  knew  her  she  was 
the  same  active,  earnest,  faithful,  but  above 
all  joyous  woman,  radiating  sunshine  as 


1 20  Alice  Jackson 

naturally  as  the  flowers.  To  see  her  smile 
or  hear  her  laugh  always  brightened  a  day. 
To  be  sure,  there  did  come  times  when  the 
strain  on  both  body  and  mind,  the  disap- 
pointment of  all  her  hopes,  would  bring  un- 
bidden tears  to  her  eyes,  but  they  were  al- 
ways dashed  away  and  the  smile  that 
followed  seemed  all  the  brighter.  I  have 
known  stoics  who  could  meet  adversity  with 
courage,  the  resigned  who  could  bear  trial 
without  complaint,  but  I  have  never  known 
any  one  who  could  so  smile  in  the  face  of 
the  keenest  trials  that  men  or  women  know. 

"  Others  will  tell  of  her  work  from  various 
standpoints.  The  marvel  to  me  was  that  she 
should  work  at  all,  yet  the  fact  was  that  she 
was  never  idle.  The  very  intervals  of  travel 
or  waiting  were  filled  with  some  activity, — 
and  she  would  not  consent  to  give  up  work 
even  when  she  knew  that  physically  it  might 
help  her.  Hard  work  for  others  seemed  to 
be  the  real  pleasure  of  her  life. 

"  Her  laughter  and  smiles  did  not  come 
from  lack  of  knowledge  of  the  things  that 
make  many  sad.  Her  work  brought  her  into 
contact  with  the  hard  features  of  poverty, 
and  the  scars  and  deformities  of  evil  were 


A  Memorial  121 

not  unknown  to  her.  Nor  did  she  lack 
sympathy  with  those  who  suffer.  Some- 
where in  her  heart  there  was  a  well-spring 
of  peace  and  joy  that  made  the  hard  places 
smooth,  the  dark  ways  brighter,  and  the  end 
of  all  things  good. 

"  Twenty  years  ago  I  spent  a  summer  in 
the  eastern  part  of  Oregon  in  a  part  of  what 
used  to  be  called  the  Great  American  Desert. 
There  rain  falls  only  once  in  a  year  or  two  and 
the  heat  of  summer  is  intense.  In  mid-July  I 
was  called  upon  to  make  a  day's  journey  over 
the  mountains  that  separate  the  middle  and 
south  branches  of  the  John  Day  River  in  search 
of  supplies  for  the  party  with  which  I  was  then 
hunting  fossils  in  those  parts.  There  was  no 
road,  and  the  trail  was  covered  with  boulders. 
Jolting  over  them  would  have  tried  one 
under  the  best  of  conditions.  At  that 
season,  with  the  sun  burning  in  a  cloudless 
sky,  the  heat  made  the  very  air  palpitate  and 
the  journey  tried  one's  endurance  thoroughly. 
Late  in  the  afternoon,  having  crossed  the  sum- 
mit of  the  mountains,  we  rapidly  made  our  way 
down  the  side,  my  companion  and  I  shaken 
and  parched  into  suffering  silence.  Finally 
we  reached  the  valley  and  saw  at  a  distance 


122  Alice  Jackson 

the  wood-lined  banks  of  the  river,  where  we 
knew  there  would  be  some  relief.  Hurrying 
towards  it  we  suddenly  slipped  over  the  edge 
of  a  little  ridge,  descended  a  short  slope  and 
entered  a  bit  of  road  entirely  overarched  by 
a  growth  of  willow  and  wild  roses.  But  a 
little  distance  jn  we  pulled  up  at  a  clear  little 
stream  where  both  horses  and  men  could 
drink  and  revive.  So  long  as  I  live  I  can 
never  forget  the  welcome  shade  from  the 
burning  sun,  the  fragrance  of  the  cool  air 
which  had  caught  the  sweetness. of  both 
flowers  and  water,  and  finally  the  draught  of 
the  clear  stream  itself.  Beside  the  thought 
of  that  spot  with  its  welcome  shade,  the 
sweetness  of  the  air,  and  its  clear,  cool 
waters,  stands  the  memory  of  Alice  Jackson. 
She  had  a  mind  and  heart  that  left  just  such 
an  impression  upon  one.  A  sweeter,  truer 
Christian  woman  I  never  expect  to  meet." 

From  far-off  China  one  woman  wrote : 
"  She  was  one  of  my  saints  ;  and  she  had  such 
a  rare  combination  of  character.  She  was 
so  brave,  so  loving,  so  true,  and  she  had  the 
widest  love  and  charity  for  other  people." 


XI 

HER  OWN  INTERPRETATION  OF 
LIFE  AND  DEATH 

SO  she  passed  on,  leaving  behind  her 
this  trail  of  glory.  The  Wednesday 
after  her  death  would  have  been  her 
birthday.  It  was  her  birthday,  only  not  here 
but  in  a  far  fairer  country.  There,  beyond 
all  the  pain  and  limitation  against  which  she 
strove  bravely  here,  she  began  the  blessed 
service  of  eternity.  We  may  be  sure  her 
coming  in  was  as  Valiant  for  Truth's  when 
the  Holy  Pilgrimage  was  done.  "  My 
sword,"  said  he,  "  I  leave  to  him  that  comes 
after  me  in  my  pilgrimage,  my  courage  and 
skill  to  him  that  can  get  it,  my  marks  and 
scars  I  carry  with  me  to  be  witnesses  that  I 
have  fought  His  battles  who  is  now  to  be 
my  rewarder.  So  he  passed  over,  and  all  the 
trumpets  sounded  for  him  on  the  other  side." 
But  what  she  was  and  what  death  meant 
to  her,  some  of  her  own  simple  verses  tell 
us  better  than  any  borrowed  words.  Her 
123 


124  Alice  Jackson 

own  life  fulfilled  the  lines  which  she  wrote 
about  another  for  one  Christmas  Day. 

Her  life  was  one  of  sweet  simplicity. 
Forgetting  self,  unconsciously  each  day, 
She  taught  the  lesson  of  that  sweet  denial, 
The  joy  of  those  who  on  the  altar  lay 
Their  lives — to  take  them  up  again  for  others, 
Who  to  the  world  deep  joy  and  gladness  bring, 
Fulfilling  by  their  daily  lives  the  message 
Which  on  the  Christmas  morn  the  angels  sing. 

The  "  Harmony "  of  which  she  wrote  in 
the  little  book  of  college  verses  called  "  Cap 
and  Bells "  was  never  in  any  life  more 
sweetly  present  than  in  hers  : 

His  life  was  one  of  quietness, 

No  mighty  field  of  action  had  he  sought. 

Yet  even  as  the  silence  of  the  evening  hour 

The  most  sublime  of  harmonies  has  wrought, 

The  harmony  of  night, 

So,  too,  his  heart, 

Touched  by  the  great  musician  of  all  life, 

Sang  its  own  part 

In  the  great  song  of  songs, 

The  Song  of  Love. 

Men  heard  the  music  in  their  hearts, 

Echoed  again  the  soft  low  strain, 

Yet  hearing  it,  they  could  not  tell 

From  whence  it  came. 


A  Memorial  125 

Through  all  the  shadows  of  her  way  her 
own  faith  saw  the  Light  of  God.  Of  "  Even- 
ing," she  had  written : 

A  golden  pathway,  stretching  forth 
From  earth  to  heaven, 
Whereon,  at  even-tide,  the  prayers  of  many 
Ascend  unto  the  very  throne  of  God. 

Darkness  descends, — the  sun  fast  sinks  to  rest. 

And  o'er  the  world  a  gray  cloud 

Hangs  outstretched 

To  fold  all  light  and  brightness  in  a  close  embrace. 

Then  from  above,  the  great  Father  of  all  light 

and  truth 

Looks  down  and  sees  the  earth  in  her  distress, 
And  showers  on  her 
The  radiance  of  other  worlds. 

So,  too,  through  life — darkness  is  not  supreme, 

But  still  subservient  to  the  light, 

The  clouds  but  come 

To  vanish  in  the  dawn  of  waking  day. 

And  it  was  Christ  who  made  her  sure  of 
this  : 

We  do  not  know,  dear,  where 

The  path  on  which  our  feet  must  stray 

Shall  lead,  nor  yet  if  dark  and  lonely  be  the  way. 


126  Alice  Jackson 

But  this  we  know, 

That  night  shall  be  as  day, 

With  Christ  as  guide. 

We  do  not  know  just  where 

This  heart  of  yours  and  mine 

Shall,  round  the  Cross,  its  tendrils  deep  and  close 

entwine. 

But  this  we  know, 
That  branches  of  the  Vine 
Shall  share  His  peace. 

And  this  we  know, 

That  whatsoe'er  it  be, 

Our  hearts  shall  ever  full  of  joy  and  gladness  be, 

Filled  with  a  deep  consuming  love, 

O  Christ,  for  Thee, 

Who  gives  us  all. 

And  so  death,  of  whose  near  coming  she 
had  long  known  and  thought,  had  no  terror 
for  her  quiet  trust.  She  saw  through  it  and 
beyond.  About  her  father  she  had  written  : 

They  say  that  he  is  dead, 

And  yet  to  me 

He  is  not  dead.     I  ever  seem  to  see 

The  same  familiar  form,  to  hear  his  voice 

Speak  sweetly  as  of  old. 


A  Memorial  127 

They  say  that  he  is  dead, 
They  take  me  to  his  grave, 
And  standing  there,  they  wonder 
Why  I  do  not  grieve 

For  him  as  dead They  do  not  understand, 

He  has  not  gone  to  some  far  distant  land 
But  dwelleth  here  to-day. 

They  say  that  he  is  dead, 

And  yet  to  me  he  is  not  dead. 

I  ever  seem  to  see  into  the  past  from  whence  he 

came, 

Into  the  future,  whither  he  has  gone. 
He  is  not  dead  to  me,  but  closer  than  before. 

And  to  whom,  but  to  herself,  was  she  speak- 
ing in  some  other  lines  ? 

Thou  would'st  not  die,  dear  ? 

Thou  would'st  live  forever 

Here  in  this  world  ? 

Seeking  the  joy  that  comes  without  sorrow, 

Living  to-day,  with  no  thought  of  the  morrow, 

Thus,  would'st  thou  live,  dear  ? 

Knowest  thou  not,  dear, 

That  death  is  but  life 

In  fuller  measure  ? 

The  life  of  all  love,  where  there  is  no  sorrow, 

Of  one  long,  sweet  day  with  no  dread  of  the 

morrow  ? 
Why  fear  then  to  die,  dear  ? 


128  Alice  Jackson 

She  could  not  have  refrained  from  think- 
ing thus  for  years  on  what  she  knew  would 
not  be  far  away,  but  no  one  ever  found  even 
the  shadow  of  anything  unreal  in  her.  No 
unnatural  moods  rested  upon  her.  To  the 
end  the  sunshine  of  God  lightened  her  life, 
for  she  knew  that  He  was  and  she  walked 
with  Him,  even  as  she  sang : 

I  cannot  tell  what  life  may  be, 
I  have  not  walked  those  paths  untrod, 
But  this  I  know,  that  come  what  may 
Life  is,— and  God  is  God. 

I  cannot  tell  what  death  may  be, 
The  end  of  life.     Nay,  heaven's  above. 
And  this  I  know,  whate'er  befall, 
Death  is, — and  God  is  Love. 

Oh,  Thou,  the  Infinite,  the  True, 
Who  fought  the  battle,  won  the  strife, 
Teach  us  aright  to  understand 
That  Life  is  Hope  and  Death  is  Life. 

For  her.     For  us  ? 


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